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:( LIBRARY  1 


THE  SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  SCOTLAND 


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THE 


SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  SCOTLAND 


IN    THE 


EIGHTEENTH    CENTUEY 


BY 

HENRY    GREY    GRAHAM 


VOL.  I 


LONDON 
ADAM    AND    CHARLES    BLACK 

1899 


PKEFACE 

In  Scotland  during  the  eighteenth  century  there  were  only- 
two  outstanding  events  which,  after  the  Union,  specially  belong 
to  its  history — the  Eebellion  of  '15  and  the  Eebellion  of  '45. 
Besides  these  rebellions,  we  find  as  State  affairs  of  Scotland 
chiefly  obscure  intrigues  of  factions.  Whig  and  Tory,  Presby- 
terian and  Jacobite ;  measures  managed  by  leaders  of  Scottish 
business,  who  were  servile  followers  of  English  ministries ; 
manoeuvres  of  Scots  nobles  and  placemen  who  travel  southwards 
on  horseback  or  in  coach  to  win  favour  with  great  statesmen 
at  Westminster  or  courtiers  at  St.  James's — figures  not  very 
real  to  us  to-day  as  they  flit  across  the  stage,  "  transient  and 
embarrassed  phantoms."  To  the  end  of  the  century — when 
Henry  Dundas  was  "  uncrowned  King "  of  Scotland,  pulling 
every  political  wire,  and  making  local  magnates  and  voters  in 
town  and  country  obsequiously  move  like  puppets  at  his  will 
— political  life  in  North  Britain  was  virtiJally  non-existent. 

This  book,  however,  does  not  treat  of  stirring  and  striking 
episodes  such  as  the  Eebellions,  with  their  elements  of  high 
romance  not  unalloyed  with  dingy  intrigue :  for  these  a  sketch 
would  be  too  little,  and  here  a  history  would  be  too  much. 
Still  less  does  it  concern  itself  witli  the  ways  of  politicians, 
who  often  mistook  State  craftiness  for  Statecraft,  from  the 
pettifogging  schemers  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  to  the 
dictatorship  and  despotic  party  domination  at  the  close :  these 


vi        SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

interested  the  country  a  little  at  that  time,  but  they  interest 
us  very  little  to-day.  The  following  pages  treat  of  the  social 
condition  of  the  country — chiefly  in  the  Lowlands — and  the 
internal  changes  through  which  it  passed  during  a  hundred 
years,  with  details  which  the  historian  dismisses  with  im- 
patience as  unconsidered  trifles  marring  the  dignity  of  his 
theme  and  disturbing  the  flow  of  his  narrative.  Yet,  after  all,  it 
is  in  the  inner  life  of  a  community  that  its  real  history  is  to  be 
found — in  the  homes,  and  habits,  and  labours  of  the  peasantry ; 
in  the  modes,  and  manners,  and  thoughts  of  society ;  what  the 
people  believed  and  what  they  practised  ;  how  they  farmed  and 
how  they  traded ;  how  the  poor  were  relieved ;  how  their 
children  were  taught,  how  their  bodies  were  nourished,  and 
how  their  souls  were  tended.  On  this  last  subject  it  may  be 
thought  that  too  much  has  been  said — that  the  religious  and 
ecclesiastical  state  of  Scotland  has  been  dealt  with  on  a  scale 
too  large  and  disproportionate.  It  must,  however,  be  remem- 
bered that  such  a  part — too  large  and  disproportionate — it  also 
formed  in  the  existence  and  concerns  of  the  people.  No  doubt 
many  of  the  religious  ways  and  habits,  the  old-world  theology, 
have  long  ago  vanished,  leaving  only  memories,  humorous, 
pathetic,  or  bitter,  behind  them ;  curious  convictions  that 
once  were  charged  with  dangerous  force  in  sectarian  polemics 
are  now  cold  and  harmless,  like  exploded  shells  on  an  old 
battlefield.  But  it  is  impossible  to  understand  the  character 
and  conduct  of  the  Scottish  people  without  knowing  those 
bygone  customs  and  beliefs  which  were  once  full  of  intense 
vitality.  Nowhere  were  Church  spirit  so  keen,  Church  influence 
so  far-reaching,  and  Church  affairs  so  intimate,  as  in  Scotland. 
Probably  no  period  was  so  quietly  eventful  in  shaping  the 
fortunes  and  character  of  the  covintry  as  the  eighteenth  century. 
Others  are  more  distinguished  by  striking  incidents,  others  are 
more  full  of  the  din  and  tumult  and  strife  which  arrest  atten- 
tion and  are  treated  as  crises,  although  they  may  neither  stir  the 


PREFACE  vii 

depths  nor  affect  the  course  of  a  people's  life ;  but  in  that 
century  there  was  a  continuous  revolution  going  on — a  gradual 
transformation  in  manners,  customs,  opinions,  among  every 
class ;  the  rise  and  progress  of  agricultural,  commercial,  and 
intellectual  energy,  that  turned  waste  and  barren  tracts  to 
fertile  fields — stagnant  towns  to  centres  of  busy  trade — a 
lethargic,  slovenly  populace  to  an  active,  enterprising  race — an 
utterly  impoverished  country  to  a  prosperous  land.  These 
facts  constitute  the  real  history  of  the  Scots  in  the  eighteenth 
century. 

The  literature  of  the  period,  which  developed  so  marvel- 
lously after  the  middle  of  the  century,  is  only  slightly  indicated 
in  this  study  of  the  time.  It  is  a  subject  full  of  interest  and 
importance  ;  but,  though  it  came  within  the  scope  of  this  work, 
it  could  not  be  put  within  the  bounds  of  its  space. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I 

PAGE 

Country  Society  and  Country  Life,  1700-1750        .  .  1 


CHAPTER    II 

Country  Society  and  Country  Manners,  1750-1800  .         56 

CHAPTER   III 

Town  Life — Edinburgh  .  .  .  .  .81 

CHAPTER   IV 

Town  Society — Glasgow        .  .  .  .  .127 

CHAPTER   V 

The  Land  and  the  People,  1700-1750  .  .  .       146 

CHAPTER   VI 

The  Land  and  the  People,  1750-1800  .  .  .       201 

CHAPTER   VII 

The  Poor  of  Scotland  .  .  .  ,  .228 


SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  SCOTLAND  IN  THE 
EIGHTEENTH  CENTUEY 

CHAPTER    I 

COUNTEY    SOCIETY    AND    COUNTRY    LIFE 
1700-1750 


Scotland,  although  geographically  separated  from  England  by 
only  an  invisible  march  here  and  a  narrow  river  there,  was 
socially  far  separated  by  immemorial  antagonism,  by  bitter 
historical  traditions,  by  strength  of  inveterate  prejudice,  by 
diversity  of  laws,  by  opposition  of  Church  creed  and  polity, 
by  hostile  interests  in  trade,  by  contrast  in  ways  of  living,  tone 
of  thought,  and  mode  of  speech. 

Feelings  and  usages  had  become  part  of  life  and  character 
which  were  peculiarly  Scottish,  forming  the  undefinable  quality 
of  nationality  ;  and  these  had  become  intensified  and  confirmed 
by  political  jealousy,  and  maintained  with  patriotic  animosity — 
all  which  had  the  effect  of  giving  a  striking  individuality  to  the 
people.  This  contrast  and  this  separation  continued  very  long 
after  the  Union  of  1707,  which  united  the  governments,  but 
could  not  unite  the  two  peoples.  Intercourse  between  them 
was  slight,  always  intermittent,  and  seldom  pleasant  even  in 
the  highest  classes.  Dislike  of  everything  English  was  keen 
in  the  North  ;  a  contempt  of  everything  Scottish  was  bitter 
in  the  South.      Counuunication  with  England  was  rare  even 

VOL.  I  1 


2         SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 

among  people  of  quality ;  for  distances  were  great,  roads  were 
execrable,  and  the  cost  of  travelling  and  lodging  was  appalling 
to  people  who,  in  all  ranks,  high  and  low,  were  miserably  poor. 

All  these  barriers  kept  Scotland  in  a  state  of  isolation. 
The  country  could  modify  little  and  learn  little,  even  if  inclined 
to  change,  by  contact  with  another  state  of  civilisation ;  and  so 
it  happened  that  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  elapsed  with 
few  peculiar  habits  and  national  customs  having  passed  away. 

The  few  Englishmen  who  journeyed  to  North  Britain,  from 
spirit  of  adventurous  curiosity  or  from  stress  of  business, 
entered  upon  the  expedition  with  the  air  of  heroic  courage 
with  which  a  modern  traveller  sets  forth  to  explore  the  wild 
region  of  a  savage  land.  If  the  tourist  entered  Scotland  by 
way  of  Berwick  and  the  Lothians,  he  did  not  at  first  meet  much 
to  shock  him  by  ugly  contrast.  If  he  entered  by  Dumfriesshire 
and  the  moors  of  Galloway,  he  was  at  once  filled  with  dismay 
by  the  dismal  change  from  his  own  country — the  landscape  a 
bleak  and  bare  solitude,  destitute  of  trees,  abounding  in  heather 
and  morass  and  barren  hills ;  soil  where  cultivation  was  found 
only  in  dirty  patches  of  crops,  on  ground  surrounded  by  heather 
and  bog ;  regions  where  the  inhabitants  spoke  an  uncouth 
dialect,  were  dressed  in  rags,  lived  in  hovels,  and  fed  on  grain, 
with  which  he  fed  his  horses  ;  and  when  night  fell,  and  he  reached 
a  town  of  dirty  thatched  huts,  and  gained  refuge  in  a  miser- 
able abode  that  passed  for  an  inn,  only  to  get  a  bed  he  could 
not  sleep  in,  and  fare  he  could  not  eat,  his  disgust  was  inex- 
pressible. After  he  had  departed,  and  finally  reached  his 
English  home  in  safety,  he  wrote  down  his  adventures  as  a 
modern  explorer  pens  his  experiences  in  Darkest  Africa ;  and 
then  he  uttered  frankly  to  the  world  his  vehement  emotions. 
It  is  thus  one  English  gentleman,  escaping  to  his  native  soil, 
summed  up  his  impressions  of  the  North :  "  I  passed  to 
English  ground,  and  hope  I  may  never  go  to  such  a  country 
again.  I  thank  God  I  never  saw  such  another,  and  must 
conclude  with  poet  Cleveland — 

Had  Cain  been  Scot,  God  had  ne'er  changed  his  doom, 
Not  made  him  wander,  but  confined  him  home."  ^ 

^  Journey  through  North  of  England  and  Scotland  in  1704,  p.  65,  privately 
printed,  Edin.  1818. 


CO UNTR  Y  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR  Y  LIFE  3 

It  was  in  such  a  way  that  travellers  up  to  the  middle 
of  the  century — and,  indeed,  for  a  long  while  after — were 
accustomed  to  speak  of  North  Britain.  Meanwhile,  to  the 
stay-at-home  Englishman,  Scotland  remained  a  terra  incognita. 
Rumour  exaggerated  all  its  terrors,  and  prejudice  believed  in 
them  long  after  they  had  passed  away.^  Not  even  in  the 
wild  scenery  did  the  traveller  see  anything  of  beauty  or  sub- 
limity, but  rather  forms  of  ugliness  and  gloom  which  deepened 
his  dislike  of  the  land.  In  vain  did  Nature  present  its  finest 
and  grandest  aspects  to  his  gaze — the  roaring  torrent,  the 
towering  mountain  height,  the  boundless  moor  rich  in  purple 
glory.  Captain  Burt  was  quite  disposed  to  speak  fair  of  the 
country  and  its  people ;  but  a  Highland  landscape  only 
awakened  abhorrence  in  the  cultivated  Englishman,  who  pre- 
ferred Eosamond's  Pond  to  any  loch,  and  Primrose  Hill  to 
every  mountain. 

"  The  huge  naked  rocks,  being  just  above  the  heath,  produce 
the  disagreeable  appearance  of  a  scabbed  head."  That  is  his 
ruthless  comment.  He  concludes  what  he  calls  "  the  disagree- 
able subject "  of  the  outward  appearance  of  the  mountains  by 
saying,  "  There  is  not  much  variety  in  it,  but  gloomy  spaces, 
different  rocks,  and  heath  high  and  low.  To  cast  one's  eye 
from  an  eminence  towards  a  group  of  them,  they  appear  still 
one  above  the  other,  fainter  and  fainter  according  to  aerial 
perspective,  and  the  whole  of  a  dismal  brown  drawing  upon  a 
dirty  purple,  and  most  of  all  disagreeable  when  the  heath  is 
in  bloom."  ^  The  love  of  nature  in  its  wild  aspects  did  not 
inspire  the  clever  engineer  of  Marshal  Wade,  who  liked  better 
to  level  the  heights  and  make  rough  places  smooth  than  to 
look  on  them.  Not  yet  did  such  scenery  attract  travellers 
and  kindle  enthusiasm.  They  described  the  Dumfriesshire  hills 
as  "  presenting  a  most  hideous  aspect  "  ;  mountains  as  "  black 
and  frightful";  and  Goldsmith,  in  1753,  had  nothing  to  say 
of  the  characteristic  features  of  Scottish  scenery  except  that 
"  hills  and  rocks  intercept  every  prospect."  ^ 

^  Burt,  i.  5.  Much  later  in  the  century  it  was  true  that  "English  ministers 
did  not  know  much  more  of  Scotland  than  they  did  of  Tartary." — Ramsay's 
Scotland  ami  Scotsmen,  i.  48.  '  Burt,  i.  285. 

2  "Drumlanrig  is  like  a  fine  picture  in  a  dirty  grotto.  It  is  environed  with 
mountains  which  have  the  wildest  and  most  hideous  aspect  of  any  in  all  the  south 


4         SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Leaving  the  habits  and  modes  of  life  of  the  peasantry  to  be 
described  elsewhere,  we  turn  to  the  manners  of  country  society 
at  a  time  when  the  number  of  modest  estates  was  great,  and 
smaller  gentry  abounded.  Their  tastes  were  frugal,  and  their 
notions,  like  their  incomes,  narrow.  A  gentleman  might 
have  a  property  wide  in  range  of  land,  but  producing  rents 
miserably  mean,  derived  from  some  small  "mailings"  or  crofts 
more  fertile  in  weeds  than  in  grain,  which  formed  little  oases 
in  vast  expanses  of  unreclaimed  moor,  hill,  and  bog,  and  were 
let  at  a  rental  from  Is.  to  3s.  an  acre.  A  Scots  landowner  in 
the  early  part  of  the  century  was  wealthy  with  a  rent-roll  of 
£500,  rich  with  an  income  of  from  £300  to  £200,  well  off 
with  £100  or  £80;  and  many  gentlemen  of  good  degree  an(J 
long  pedigree  had  to  preserve  their  station  with  £50  to  £20 
a  year.^  Nor  was  this  rental  paid  in  money.  Half  of  it  or 
two-thirds  was  paid  in  kind  ^ — so  many  sheep,  eggs,  poultry ; 
so  many  bolls  of  barley,  oats,  or  pease.  When  the  term  of 
Whitsunday  or  Martinmas  came  round,  the  half-starved  horses 
of  the  tenants  were  to  be  seen,  in  unsteady  cavalcade,  stumbling 
slowly  along  the  bridle-paths,  one  man  guiding  every  two 
emaciated  beasts,  which  laboured  under  their  burdens  of  one 
boll  each.  The  grain  was  deposited  in  the  girnal  or  granary 
attached  to  the  house,  and  there  it  remained  till  it  was  con- 
sumed by  the  household,  or  sold  in  the  market  to  produce  the 
money  which  was  sorely  needed  for  home  expenditure  ;  though 

part  of  Scotland." — Tour  in  Great  Britain,  iv.  124.  ' '  From  Kilsytli  we  mounted 
the  hills,  black  and  frightful  as  they  are,  to  find  the  roads  over  the  moors  and 
mountains  to  Stirling." — Ibid.  p.  152.     Forster's  Life  of  Goldsmith,  i.  438. 

^  "  There  are  a  gi'eat  many  [estates]  in  Scotland  from  £100  to  £20,  and  some 
less,  possessed  by  gentlemen  of  very  good  families. "  "  The  laird  retains  half  of  his 
land  in  his  hand,  and  lets  the  rest,  of  which  400  acres  may  produce  £50  value." — 
Essay  on  Ways  and  Means  of  Enclosing,  etc.,  p.  117:  Edin.  1729. 

^  In  Edinburgh  Evening  Coitrant  of  March  15,  1742,  among  advertisements 
of  roups  of  land,  is  that  land  and  barony  of  Kerco  and  Ballathie,  in  Perthshii-e, 
which  gives  fair  sample  of  the  forms  of  rental :  "  £1785  Scots  in  money,  33  bolls 
bear,  48  bolls  meal,  7  bolls  malt,  14  salmon  fishes,  a  mill-swine,  32  poultry  fowls, 
12  capons,  and  48  dargues"  (days'  work).  Among  the  forfeited  estates  of  1715, 
ranging  from  Lords  Winton,  Southesk,  and  Panmure,  with  rental  of  over  £3000 
a  year,  to  lairds  with  a  rental  from  £80  to  £50,  from  a  half  to  two-thirds 
was  paid  in  kind.  Sir  John  Preston  of  Prestonhall  had  an  income  of  £230,  only 
£68  being  in  coin,  the  rest  in  grain,  straw,  and  poultry.  Sir  David  Threipland 
of  Fingask  had  an  income  of  £537,  all  but  £147  being  paid  in  grain,  yarn,  geese, 
hens,  and  chickens. — Murray's  York  Buildings  Coimpany,  p.  121. 


COUNTRY  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  5 

too  often  it  was  spoilt  by  long  keeping  in  the  hope  of  getting 
a  better  price,  or  half  eaten  by  the  rats. 

Mansion-houses,  of  course,  varied  greatly  in  style  and 
dimensions,  according  to  the  rank  and  income  of  their  owners — 
from  the  massive  castellated  buildings  of  nobles  and  chiefs, 
generally  dating  from  the  sixteenth  century,  with  their  turrets 
and  battlements,  big  courtyards,  half-dried  moats  and  iron 
gateways,  down  to  the  more  homely  dwelling  of  two  storeys, 
devoid  of  dignity  from  the  floor  to  the  corbel-stepped  gable 
roof.  The  great  proportion  of  the  homes  of  the  gentry  were 
of  the  latter  class.  Love  of  natural  scenery  was  then  an 
unborn  emotion,  and  therefore  they  were  usually  erected  in 
situations  where  they  were  sheltered  from  the  blasts  that  swept 
across  the  unprotected  land,  in  a  hollow  or  by  the  side  of  a 
hill,  which,  looking  south,  got  all  the  sunshine  ;  for,  the  owners 
being  utterly  heedless  of  any  beauty  of  position,  and  quite 
indifferent  to  the  picturesque,  the  backs  of  the  houses  might 
be  turned  deliberately  to  a  lovely  river,  or  the  house  built 
within  a  stone-throw  of  a  fine  prospect,  which  occupants  could 
not  see,  quite  content  with  gazing  upon  some  bare  and  ugly 
moor.-'  Though  the  land  was  generally  barren  of  woods,  with- 
out hedge  or  tree  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  round  many 
country  houses  in  the  lowlands,  especially  in  the  Lothians, 
clumps  of  trees  planted  for  shelter — ash,  elm,  sycamore — 
clustered  so  close  to  the  walls  that  they  blocked  out  light 
and  air  from  the  small  narrow  windows,  with  their  tiny 
three-cornered  panes  of  glass.  Yet,  though  it  had  been  an 
old  practice  in  counties  which  were  better  cultivated  to  rear 
bands  of  trees  for  protection  from  the  storm,  most  country 
houses  were  still  entirely  exposed,  because  the  practice  of 
planting  round  the  houses  set  in  after  the  Eevolution,  and 
only  became  common  after  the  Union,  when  the  eyes  of  Scots 
gentlemen  were  opened  to  English  ways.^  Beside  the  house 
was  the  inevitable  dovecot — a  tower  of  masonry,  from  which 

'  Ramsay's  Scotland  and  Scotsmen,  ii.  100. 

^  It  is  a  common  mistake  to  date  the  practice  of  planting  round  mansions 
from  the  Union,  for  it  was  of  much  older  period  in  the  Lothians  and  more  culti- 
vated counties.  Sheriffdoin  of  Renfrewshire  ami  Laimrkshirc  compiled  in  1710, 
by  W.  Hamilton  of  Wishaw,  1731  ;  Cxa.-\\hx(rB  Description  of  Renfrewshire,  1720  ; 
Kirke's  Account  of  Tour  in  Scotland  in  1677.     After  the  Revolution  it  became 


6         SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

came  the  devastating  clouds  of  pigeons  to  fill  themselves  on 
the  meagre  crops  of  the  tenant,  and  afterwards  to  fill  the 
larder  of  the  laird.^  In  few  places  were  there  lawns  or 
avenues  to  add  amenity,  and  the  fields  were  ploughed  up  to 
the  front  door  or  gate  of  the  little  court.  The  courtyard 
at  the  homes  of  smaller  lairds  was  usually  formed  by  the 
house  having  a  projecting  granary  and  byre  on  one  side, 
a  projecting  stable  and  barn  on  the  other,  while  in  the 
open  space  stood  the  midden,  in  which  the  midden -fowls 
feasted  and  nursed  their  broods  among  nettles  and  docks 
growing  all  around.  Behind  or  beside  each  house,  in  the 
ill -kept  and  neglected  garden,  grew  a  great  variety  of 
shrubs  and  flowers,  partly  for  pleasure,  but  mainly  for  use.. 
Many  a  flower  was  there,  once  familiar  and  loved,  which 
has  long  been  uprooted  from  our  borders  and  our  memories, 
whose  very  names  are  forgotten  save  the  few  enshrined  in 
old  songs.'^  Beside  the  familiar  holyhock,  pink,  columbine, 
and  primrose,  were  the  virgin's-bower,  campion,  throat-wort, 
bear's-ears,  wall-pellitory,  and  spider-wort — these  for  show, 
for  scent  and  colour.  Others  were  there  as  "  sweet  herbs," 
used  for  cooking  or  for  physic — the  pennyroyal,  clary,  rose- 
mary, sweet -basil,  fennel,  beside  the  sage,  mint,  and  wild- 
marjoram.  But  no  country  garden  was  complete  without 
its  plentiful  stock  of  "  physick  herbs,"  which  were  always 
used  for  simples,  gargarisms,  confections,  and  vomitories,  in 
the  primitive  pharmacopoeia  of  the  age.  There  were  found  the 
hysop,  camomile,  and  hore-hound,  cat-mint,  elacampine,  blessed 
thissell,  stinking  arag,  rue  and  celandine,  which  were  in  con- 
stant request  in  time  of  sickness.^  Among  vegetables  many  of 
our  commonest  were  not  found,  as  they  only  came  into  use  or 
cultivation   later   in   the   century.     Turnips — or   "  neeps,"  as 

more  common.  "  Noblemen  have  of  late  run  into  planting,  parking,  and  garden- 
ing."— 'Ka.ak.ys  Jo^irtiey through Scotlandyn29,  p.  272  ;  Ramsay,  ii.  100;  Spalding 
Miscellany,  ii.  97. 

^  In  Fifesliire  at  the  end  of  the  century  there  were  320  dovecots  belonging  to 
mansions,  and  these,  containing  36,000  pairs  of  breeding  pigeons,  were  estimated 
to  consume  4000  or  5000  bolls  of  grain  every  year.  Besides  these  there  were  the 
ruins  of  many  disused  other  dovecots,  which  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  had 
abounded. — Thomson's  Agric7iUure  of  Fifeshire. 

2  Reid's  Scots  Gardner,  1683,  p.  109. 

^  Moncrielf  of  Tippermalloch's  Poor  Man's  Physician,  3rd  edition,  1731. 


CO UNTR  Y  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR Y  LIFE  7 

they  were  always  called — were  only  in  a  few  gardens ;  onions 
were  in  none,  being  all  imported  from  Holland  or  Flanders ; 
and  only  at  the  residences  of  a  few  rich  and  enterprising 
gentlemen  were  potatoes  grown.  Eound  the  gardens,  with 
their  orchards,  grew  the  nursery  of  trees,  which  were  carefully 
nourished  and  sheltered  under  the  delusion  that  they  were  too 
delicate  to  bear  exposure  in  the  open  fields. 

So  much  for  the  exterior  of  the  houses.  Within  doors, 
arrangements  were  of  the  plainest  and  furniture  was  rude. 
The  rooms  were  low-ceiled,  the  joists  and  beams  often  covered 
with  deal  boards,  the  walls  with  their  dingy  plaster  often  void 
of  adornment — paper-hangings  being  as  yet  unknown, — though 
in  large  mansions  the  walls  were  covered  with  tapestry,  arras, 
panels  of  wood,  or  gilt  leather.^  The  windows  had  no  sash 
or  pulley ;  the  rooms  had  no  bell-pulls ;  and  though  on  the 
dining-table  lay  the  hand-bell,  it  was  seldom  used,  because  a 
poker  or  a  heel  was  quite  sufficient  to  summon  the  domestics, 
with  a  knock  audible  through  unlathed  walls  and  undeafened 
floors.  No  carpets  covered  these  floors,  and,  indeed,  even 
after  the  middle  of  the  century  many  houses  of  pretension 
remained  without  them,  except  in  the  public  rooms.^  The 
bedrooms  rarely  had  grates,  the  fuel  of  turf  or  peat  being 
kindled  on  the  wide  open  hearth ;  and  few  of  the  chambers 
were  what  were  called  "  fire-rooms,"  most  of  them  being 
destitute  of  fireplaces.  The  beds  were  closed  like  a  box  in 
the  wall,  or  in  recesses  with  sliding  doors,  which  imprisoned 
and  stifled  the  sleeper ;  others  stood  out  in  the  room  ^  with 
curtains  of  plaiding  which  the  household  had  spun,  as  pro- 
tection from  the  cold  and  draughts  which  came  from  ill- 
jointed  windows  and  doors  with  ill-fitting  "  snecks."  As 
houses  were  incommodious  and  hospitality  was  exuberant,  it 
was  usual  for  two  gentlemen  or  two  ladies,  however  unknown 

^  Ramsay,  ii.  98,  etc. 

2  "I  have  been  told  that  60  or  70  years  ago  {i.e.  1756)  no  more  than  two 
carpets  existed  in  the  whole  town  of  Jedburgh. " — Somerville's  Oivn  Life,  p.  337. 
A  friend  told  Ramsay  of  Ochtcrtyre  that  when  a  boy  at  Edinburgh  ho  saw  the 
first  carpet  at  the  house  of  Sir  Thomas  Nicholson,  who  had  lived  much  abroad 
(Ramsay,  ii.  98).  At  Cawdor  House  in  1716  only  the  "king's  room"  had  a 
carpet  {Thanes  of  Caxvdor,  418). 

^  In  great  houses  the  beds  were  not  in  the  wall,  but  had  these  heavy 
hangings. 


8         SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

to  each  other  they  might  be,  to  sleep  together,  lying  over- 
whelmed with  the  burden  of  from  six  to  ten  pair  of  Scots 
blankets.  Even  in  the  drawing-room  it  was  usual  to  have 
a  closed  bed,  which  was  used  by  the  guests.^  Excepting 
on  state  occasions  the  dining-room  in  average-sized  country 
houses  was  unused,  left  dark,  dull,  and  musty,  unventilated 
by  the  sashless  windows,  while  dingy  ancestral  portraits  stared 
vacantly  on  the  empty  apartment  from  their  black  frames. 
It  was  in  the  bedroom  the  family  lived  chiefly.  There  they 
took  their  meals,  there  they  saw  their  friends,  there  at  night 
the  family  gathered  round  the  hearth,  with  its  high-polished 
brass  grate,  which  stood  detached  from  the  back  and  sides  of 
the  fireplace  ornamented  with  tiles.  There  the  girls  spun,, 
and  lads  learned  the  rules  of  Despauter's  Latin  Grammar ; 
and  only  after  "  family  exercises  "  did  the  household  disperse, 
and  the  heads  of  the  family  were  left  to  rest  and  to  sleep  in 
the  exhausted  air. 

People  rose  early  in  these  old  days  in  both  town  and 
country,  for  the  temptation  was  small  to  sit  up  late  at  night 
when  there  were  few  and  very  dull  books  to  read,  and  few 
mortals  who  cared  to  read  them,  even  if  the  room  had  not 
been  sombre  in  the  dim  gleam  of  tallow  candles.  By  five  or 
six  o'clock  the  laird  was  up,  having  taken  his  "  morning  " — a 
glass  of  ale  or  brandy,  over  which  he  reverently  said  a  grace, 
which  was  brief  when  he  was  alone,  and  longer  when  he  was 
in  company — before  he  visited  his  "  policy,"  and  his  stable  and 
fields.^  When  breakfast  was  served,  at  eight  o'clock,  he  was 
ready  for  the  substantial  fare  of  "  skink "  or  water  gruel, 
supplemented  by  coUops  or  mutton,  aided  with  ale.^  The 
bread  consisted  of  oatmeal  cakes  or  barley  bannocks :  wheaten 
bread  was  scarce,  and  rarely  used  except  as  a  dainty.     At 

^  Somerville,  p.  333.  "July  7,  1703,  to  James  Gourlay  for  ye  two  snecks 
to  ye  bed  in  the  drawing-room,  14s." — Account  Book  of  Foulis  of  Ravelston, 
p.  329.  In  1745,  in  Inverness,  there  was  only  one  house  which  contained  a  room 
without  a  bed — that  in  which  Prince  Charles  lodged.  In  1716  the  "inventar" 
of  Cawdor  Castle  mentions  the  "mid-chamber  or  drawing-room"  having  an 
"  arras  hanging  and  a  bed  of  brown  cloath  curtains  "  {Thanes  of  Cawdor,  p.  418). 

*  Ramsay's  Scotlaiul  and  Scotsmen,  ii.  67. 

3  Somerville,  p.  330.  Between  1680  and  1730  "no  mention  of  .wheaten 
bread  in  use  except  among  the  wealthy." — Hector's  Judicial  Reco7-ds  of  Renfrew- 
shire, 


CO  UNTR  V  SOCIE  TY  AND  CO  UNTR  V  LIFE  9 

twelve  or  at  one  o'clock  came  dinner,  at  which  the  master 
of  the  house,  hat  on  head,  presided  in  his  high-backed  chair. 
Plain  and  monotonous  was  the  fare  at  a  meal  which  was  ill- 
served  and  worse  cooked,  and  all  put  on  table  at  once,  except 
with  persons  of  great  rank  and  wealth,  who  had  two  courses. 
Each  person  was  served  with  a  wooden  or  a  pewter  plate ; 
and  only  when  the  dinner  hours  were  later  and  two  courses 
were  introduced  did  china  or  earthenware  plates  appear  to  suit 
the  more  fashionable  habits.^ 

The  food  consisted  incessantly  of  broth,  or  kail,  of  beef 
or  mutton,  the  broth  being  made  of  "  groats,"  which  were 
oats  stripped  of  their  husks  at  the  mill,  or  of  bear  or 
barley  which  had  been  beaten  at  the  knocking -stone  in 
the  morning,  and  hence  known  as  "  knockit  bear,"  for  as  yet 
barley  mills  were  not  introduced  into  Scotland.^  Only  in 
summer  or  autumn  could  fresh  meat  be  had ;  for,  as  all  the 
cattle  were  kept  under  cover  during  winter  and  spring,  and 
fed  on  straw  or  mashed  whins,  the  flesh  of  the  half-starved 
emaciated  brutes  was  utterly  worthless  as  food.^  To  obtain 
a  supply  for  store  at  Martinmas,  therefore,  the  "  mart "  was 
killed ;  each  household  had  cows  and  sheep  slaughtered  and 
salted   sufficient   to   last   till  next   May ;    and  on  this  salted 

^  Among  household  accounts  in  the  Roses  of  Kilravock  in  1706  is  one  from 
the  pewterer  at  Edinburgh  for  "broth  trenchers,  2  dozen  English  trenchers, 
assets  of  English  peuther  "  (p.  394).  Somerville,  p.  336.  In  the  "  Inventar  "  of 
Thunderton  in  1708  there  are  only  6  broth  plates,  12  flesh  plates,  12  white  and 
blue  "learn"  {i.e.  loam  or  earthen)  plates;  the  rest  are  "timber"  or  pewter 
(Dunbar's  Social  Life  in  Former  Days  in  MoraysJdre,  p.  205).  Hist,  of  Carluke, 
p.  18. 

^  Ramsay,  ii.  70  ;  Somerville,  p.  332.  Mrs.  Calderwood  of  Polton,  patriotic  in 
her  dishes,  her  sentiments,  and  her  sense  of  smell,  comments  disparagingly  on  the 
fare  in  London  in  1756  :  "As  for  their  victualls  they  make  such  a  work  about 
I  cannot  enter  into  the  taste  of  them,  or  rather  I  think  they  have  no  taste 
to  enter  into.  The  meat  is  juicy  enough,  but  has  so  little  taste  that  if  you 
shut  your  eyes  you  will  not  know  by  either  taste  or  smell  what  you  are  eating. 
The  lamb  and  veall  are  blanched  in  water.  The  smell  of  dinner  will  never 
intimate  what  it  is  on  table.  No  such  effluvia  as  beef  or  cabbadge  was  ever 
found  in  London  " — the  last  sentence  written  evidently  with  a  glow  of  national 
superiority,  p.  33.  The  culinary  art  of  Holland  cannot  make  up  to  this  ex- 
cellent lady  for  the  absence  of  Scots  dishes  :  "I  thought  I  had  not  got  a  dinner 
since  I  left  home  for  want  of  broath,"  p.  52  (Jo^irney). 

*  "  For  half  the  year  in  many  towns  of  Scotland  there  is  no  beef  or  mutton 
to  be  seen  in  their  shambles,  and  if  any,  it  is  like  carrion  meat,  yet  dearer  than 
ever  I  saw  in  England." — Essays  on  JFays  ami  Means  of  Enclosing,  p.  131. 


lo       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 

meat,  with  pitiless  monotony,  day  by  day  and  month  after 
month,  families  patiently  subsisted  until  the  cattle,  having 
returned  to  pasture,  were  restored  to  health,  and  they  could 
get  fresh  beef  again.  Besides  this  stale  diet  there  were 
the  "  kain  "  hens,  which  formed  part  of  the  laird's  rent  from 
his  tenants — food  which  became  not  less  intolerably  tiresome 
to  the  palate.  Some  relief  was  found  occasionally  in  muir- 
fowl  and  other  game,  which  abounded  in  the  moors  in  days 
when  poachers  were  unknown.^  Vegetables  were  not  served 
on  table,  potatoes  and  turnips  being  almost  unattainable ;  and 
the  "  neeps "  or  parsnips  and  greens  were  only  used  as  in- 
gredients in  the  kail.  Sweets  there  were  none ;  dessert  was 
unknown.  To  accompany  this  simple  but  not  attractive  re- 
past, there  was  strong  ale  in  ample  supply,  and  sometimes 
sack  or  claret,  which  was  good  and  cheap  at  a  shilling  the 
chopin  when  it  came  duty-free  from  France.  To  serve  for 
the  family,  there  was  in  many  a  household  only  one  glass  or 
tankard,  which  was  handed  on  to  the  next  person  in  succession 
as  each  finished  his  draught.^ 

At  seven  or  eight  o'clock  came  supper — a  substantial 
meal  of  the  dinner  type,  with  ale  and  claret.  But  before  that 
repast  was  the  essential  "  four  hours,"  the  name  being  derived 
from  the  time  of  refreshment  in  every  house  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest.  Ladies  took  their  ale  and  wine ;  and  if  there 
were  guests,  as  a  delicacy  a  few  slices  of  wheaten  bread  were 
cut  and  handed  with  cake  to  the  company.  Tea  during  the 
first  quarter  of  the  century  was  a  rarity  and  a  precious  luxury, 
of  which  friends  would  send  a  pound  from  abroad  as  a  costly 
gift.^  When  green  tea  sold  at  25  s.  and  Bohea  at  30  s.  a 
pound,  it  was  beyond  the  reach  of  frugal  fortunes.      In  time, 

^  The  consumption  of  "kain"  poultry  was  a  burden  to  the  palate  by  its 
iteration.  It  being  said  that  the  best  way  to  keep  Lent  would  be  to  eat  what 
was  least  agreeable,  a  stout  Episcopalian  said  he  would  therefore  keep  Lent  on 
kain  hens  (Ramsay,  ii.  69). 

^  In  reference  to  this  practice  Mr.  Adam  Petrie  gives  admirable  advice : 
' '  Be  sure  to  wipe  your  mouth  before  you  drink,  and  when  you  drink  hold  in 
your  breath  till  you  have  done.  I  have  seen  some  colour  the  glass  with  their 
breath,  which  is  certainly  very  loathsome  to  the  company." — Hides  of  Good 
Dcpmiment,  1720. 

^  Somerville,  p.  329.  In  accounts  at  Thunderton  in  1709-10  loaf-sugar  was 
Is.  6d.  a  pound  ;  green  tea,  £1 :  5s.  ;  a  pound  of  coffee  beans,  7s.  6d.  (Dunbar's 


CO UNTR  V  SOCIE TY  AND  CO UNTR  V  LIFE  1 1 

however,  it  became  more  attainable  through  the  enterprise  of 
smugglers,  and  the  common  people  could  buy  it  for  three  or 
four  shillings  from  the  shop,  or  from  the  cadger,  who  had  in 
his  creels  supphes  drawn  from  a  mysterious  source  on  which 
silence  was  prudently  kept. 

The  fashion  of  tea -drinking,  becoming  common  about 
1720,  had  to  make  its  way  against  vehement  opposition. 
The  patriotic  condemned  tea  as  a  foreign  drink  hurtful  to 
national  industry ;  the  old-fashioned  protested  against  it  as  a 
new-fangled  folly ;  the  robust  scorned  it  as  an  effeminate 
practice ;  magistrates,  ministers,  and  energetic  laymen  put  it 
in  the  same  malignant  category  as  smuggled  spirits,  anathema- 
tised its  use  by  the  poor,  among  whom  (they  warned  them) 
it  would  assuredly  produce  "  corruption  of  morals  and  de- 
bility of  constitution."^  It  is  not  surprising  that  men  like 
Lord  President  Forbes  should  denounce  the  "  vile  drug  "  with 
special  energy.  It  was  a  contemptible  beverage  to  him  and 
his  brother  "  Bumper  John."  They  had  been  "  the  most 
plentiful  drinkers  in  the  north,"  and  in  Culloden  House  had 
had  the  custom  of  prizing  off  the  top  of  each  successive  cask 
of  claret,  and  placing  it  in  the  hall  to  be  emptied  in  pailfuls.- 

By  1729  Mackintosh  of  Borlum  laments  the  sadly  changed 
times.  "  When  I  came  to  my  friend's  house  of  a  morning,  I 
used  to  be  asked  if  I  had  my  morning  draught  yet  ?  I  am 
now  asked  if  I  have  had  my  tea  ?     And  in  lieu  of  the  big 

Social  Life,  p,  195).  In  1705  green  tea  was  advertised  as  sold  at  16s.  and  Bohea 
at  30s.  a  pound  by  George  Scott,  goldsmith,  Luckenbooths,  who  sold  chocolate 
at  3s.  6d.  (Chambers'  Traditions,  i.  13). 

^  Medical  men  regarded  tea  uath  disfavour.  Commended  in  lethargic  diseases, 
headaches,  gouts,  and  gravel,  it  was  considered  hurtful  to  weak  constitutions  if 
much  used,  "causing  tremblings  and  shakings  of  the  head  and  hands,  loss  of 
appetite,  vapours,  and  other  nervous  diseases." — Alston's  Lectures  on  Materia 
Medica,  1770,  ii.  234.  Even  in  1793  a  minister  mourns  tiiat  "the  views  of  the 
capital  are  beginning  to  spread  among  the  people,  and  the  introduction  of  these 
baneful  articles  to  the  poor  of  tea  and  whisky  will  soon  produce  the  corruption 
of  morals  and  debility  of  constitution  which  are  so  severely  felt  in  every  parish, 
and  will  soon  materially  impair  the  real  strength  and  population  of  Scotland." — 
Currie,  Stat.  Acct.  of  Scotland. 

-  Forbes  of  Culloden  uttered  his  contempt  of  tea  vigorously  in  Culloden 
Papers,  p.  180  ;  Some  Considerations  on  the  present  State  of  Scotland,  1743  (by 
Duncan  Forbes)  ;  Burton's  Lives  of  Lovat  and  Forbes,  p.  368  ;  Omond's  Lord 
Advocates,  i.  320.  £40  of  claret  was  drunk  in  one  month,  when  the  highest  price 
was  16s.  or  18s.  a  dozen. 


12        SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

quaigh  with  strong  ale  and  toast,  and  after  a  dram  of  good, 
wholesome  Scots  spirits,  there  is  now  the  tea-kettle  put  to 
the  fire,  the  tea-table  and  silver  and  china  equippage  brought 
in,  and  marmalade  and  cream."  In  spite  of  all  scorn,  by 
1750  the  most  stalwart  and  conservative  had  succumbed  to 
its  attractions,  and  tea  (tempered  with  brandy)  took  the  place 
of  ale  as  a  necessity  at  every  breakfast-table.^ 

The  spirit  of  these  old  days  was  eminently  hospitable,  and 
exuberantly  hearty.  Living  in  the  country,  where  occupation 
was  dull  and  amusements  were  few,  and  intercourse  with 
the  outer  world  was  impeded  by  lack  of  roads,  the  gentry 
found  the  sight  of  friends  extremely  welcome.  Neighbours 
were  wont  to  come,  "  without  sending  word,"  on  horse- 
back ;  and  in  the  effusiveness  of  hospitality  there  was  shown 
a  "  pressing "  of  guests  to  stay  to  eat  and  to  drink,  which  it 
was  a  meanness  to  omit  and  offence  to  resist."  The  bashful 
ate  till  full  to  repletion ;  the  amiable  and  obsequious  fed 
in  meek  compliance ;  the  stalwart  only  dared  to  refuse,  and 
the  prudent  saved  themselves  by  keeping  something  always 
on  their  plate.  There  was  in  this  friendly  intercourse  no 
display,  and  no  change  in  food  was  made  or  was  possible  to 
make.  Then,  as  always,  were  the  inevitable  dishes — broth, 
beef,  and  hens.^  All  that  was  requisite  was  to  have  enough 
for  all ;  and  neighbours  considerately  arrived  in  ample  time  to 
allow  of  an  extra  siipply  being  cooked  by  one  o'clock.  They 
were  taken  round  the  "  policy  "  to  pass  the  hour,  while  the 
servant  looked  for  the  dog  that  turned  the  spit,  which 
cunningly  hid  himself  whenever  he  perceived  by  culinary 
preparations  that  his  disagreeable  services  would  be  required ; 

^  [Mackintosh  of  Borl  urn's]  Essay  on  Ways  and  Means  of  Enclosing,  etc.,  1729, 
p.  232. 

-  Mrs.  Caldenvood's  Journey,  p.  227  ;  Somerville,  p.  369  ;  Ramsay,  ii.  67. 

^  Only  in  the  highest  and  wealthiest  classes  were  tliere  two  courses.  At  the 
table  of  the  Duchess  of  Buccleugh  and  Monmouth  in  1701  were  present  the  family. 
Lords  Rothes,  Haddington,  Elcho,  and  three  gentlemen.  Dinner,  1st  course — 300 
oysters,  bacon,  and  pease  pottage,  haggis  with  calf's  pluck,  beef,  collops,  mutton 
roasted,  3  joints,  fricassee  of  5  chickens,  and  roasted  goose  ;  2nd  course — 5  wild 
fowl,  5  chickens,  buttered  crabs,  tarts,  4  roasted  hares  (at  officers'  table,  beef, 
2  joints,  2  roasted  rabbits).  At  supper — Joint  of  mutton,  roasted  rabbits. 
Breakfast — 2  joints  in  collops,  4  quarters  of  roasted  lamb,  2  roasted  capons. — 
Arnot's  Edinburgh,  p.  200. 


CO  UNTR  V  SOCIE  TV  AND  CO  UNTR  Y  LIFE  13 

and  soon  the  guests  heard  the  familiar  sound  of  screeching 
which  they  recognised  too  well  as  intimately  connected  with 
their  approaching  meal.  Ale  was  the  chief  beverage  in  which 
they  indulged  at  dinner  and  supper ;  but  there  was  claret  too, 
which  was  served  in  pewter  stoups.  The  glasses  might  be 
few,  but  the  drink  was  plentiful,  and  when  days  of  refinement 
came  old  topers  mourned  over  these  departed  times  when  "  there 
were  fewer  glasses  and  more  bottles."  By  1730  there  had 
come  changes  which  worthies  deplored.  So  the  laird  of 
Borlum  again  laments  that,  though  incomes  had  become  no 
larger,  customs  had  become  more  expensive.  "  Formerly  I 
had  been  served  with  two  or  three  substantial  dishes  of  beef, 
mutton,  and  fowl,  garnished  with  their  own  wholesome  gravy. 
I  am  now  served  up  little  expensive  ashets  with  EngHsh 
pickles,  Indian  mangoes,  and  anchovy  sauces.  ...  In  lieu  of 
the  good  substantial  large  flagon  or  quart  stoup  from  the  barrel, 
there  comes  to  the  by-table  a  basket  or  armful  of  bottles  \ 
and  if  the  ale  is  never  so  strong,  old,  and  pale,  it  is  seldom 
good  enough  for  the  second  service  without  a  glass  of  claret. 
If  the  wine  is  not  out  or  bad  there  must  be  at  least  bottles 
a  piece  of  it ;  if  it  is  out  or  bad  there  must  be  a  snaker  of 
sack  or  brandy  punch."  At  all  which  gross  extravagance 
this  "  lover  of  his  country,"  as  he  styles  himself,  has  his 
patriotic  soul  vexed  within  him. 


II 

Rough  and  rude  were  the  manners  of  the  early  part  of 
the  century,  as  well  as  the  fare.^     No  carving  knife  or  fork 

^  Rules  of  Good  Deportment,  by  Adam  Petrie,  Edinburgh,  1720. — "Do  not 
sip  your  drink  in  taking  3  or  4  draughts  of  it.  Do  not  lick  your  fingers  nor 
dirty  your  napkins.  If  you  are  obliged  to  eat  off  one  dish  let  your  superiors 
begin.  It  is  rude  to  take  snufT  at  table  when  others  are  eating,  for  the  particles 
of  it  being  driven  from  the  nose  by  the  breath  is  most  unpleasant.  I  have 
known  some  drive  it  the  breadth  of  the  whole  table.  Servants  should  not 
scratch  or  shrug  their  shoulders,  nor  appear  with  dirty  liands,  nor  lean  on  their 
master's  chair."  Petrie,  led  by  the  success  of  his  manual  of  etiipiette,  published 
his  Rules  of  Good  Deportment  for  Church  Officers  (1730),  in  which  there  is  much 
good  sense,  and  dedicated  it  to  Sir  Hew  Dalrymple,  Lord  President,  "as  a 
testimony  of  my  respect  to  your  lordship  for  being  so  kind  in  speaking  always 
(when  occasion  offered)  favourably  of  my  book  of  manners." 


14       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

was  employed,  the  host  dividing  the  meat  with  his  own ;  and 
when  the  more  refined  implements  came  into  use,  Lord 
Auchinleck  sneered  at  the  new-fangled  superfine  fashion. 
Those  at  table  took  the  succulent  bones  in  their  fingers  and 
picked  them  carefully — a  practice  which  gave  occasion  to  the 
custom  in  certain  households  of  handing  water  in  a  basin  for 
each  person  to  clean  his  hands  after  the  meal.^  The  guests 
were  apt  to  convey  their  food  to  their  mouths  at  the  end  of 
their  knives — a  Scots  practice  which  provoked  the  wrath  of 
Catherine,  Duchess  of  Queensberry  (Prior's  "  Kitty  beautiful 
and  young"),  who  was  wont  to  shriek  out  in  agony  as  she 
watched  her  country  friends  at  Drumlanrig  performing  their 
accustomed  operation ;  and,  beseeching  them  not  to  cut  their 
throats,  her  imperious  Grace  would  send  a  servant  with  a  spoon 
and  fork  on  a  salver  to  their  rescue  and  rebuke.^  In  1720 
Mr.  Adam  Petrie,  tutor,  "  stickit  minister,"  and  schoolmaster, 
published  his  charmingly  naive  Rules  of  Good  Deportment  for 
the  Use  of  Youth,  wherein  he  gave  admirable  advice  on  manners 
which  he  had  himself  picked  up  when  acting  as  chaplain  to  a 
family  of  good  degree.  His  manual  strikes  us  as  somewhat 
rudimentary  in  its  principles ;  but  doubtless  in  his  own  day 
his  counsels  came  to  many  as  a  flash  of  revelation.  Solemnly 
he  gives  his  important  rules :  "  You  must  drink  out  your 
glass  that  others  may  not  have  your  blown  drink,  and  do  it 
with  as  little  noise  as  possible,"  for  one  glass  had  to  pass 
round  the  company ;  "  do  not  gnaw  your  bones  too  clean " ; 
"  it  is  indecent  to  fill  the  mouth  too  full ;  such  cramming  is 
more  suitable  for  a  beast  than  a  rational  creature  " ;  "  be  sure 
to  throw  nothing  on  the  floor ;  it  is  uncivil  and  disobliging  " ; 
"  it  is  rude  to  suck  your  meat  out  of  a  spoon  with  an  un- 
grateful noise  " ;  "  to  wipe  the  nose  or  sweat  off  the  face  with 
a  table  napkin  is  most  rude."  In  this  manner  does  this 
worthy  and  obsequious  pedagogue — for  it  must  be  owned  he 

^  Petrie's  Rules  of  Good  Deportment. — "When  water  is  presented  after  meat, 
you  may,  after  your  superiors  liave  begun,  dip  the  corner  of  your  napkin  in  the 
water,  and  wipe  your  mouth  with  it,  holding  the  other  end  of  your  napkin 
between  you  and  the  company,  that  you  may  do  it  as  imperceptibly  as  you  can, 
and  then  rub  your  fingers,  holding  your  hands  down  upon  your  knees.  Superiors 
may  do  it  more  openly." 

"^  Chambers'  Traditions  of  Edinburgh,  i.  295. 


COUNTRY  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  15 

is  obsequious  even  to  grovelling  before  "  superiors  " — at  once 
incite  the  youth  of  his  time  to  good  deportment,  and  suggest 
to  us  that  the  deportment  of  his  age  stood  in  considerable 
need  of  amendment. 

In  simple  and  unpretentious  establishments  the  frugality 
of  the  dining-room  was  repeated  in  the  kitchen.  Even  in 
houses  of  high  position  the  women  servants  went  without  shoes 
or  stockings,  clad  in  short  worsted  petticoats  or  dresses  of  coarse 
plaiding.  Their  wages  were  about  15  s.  to  20  s.  a  year,  suj)ple- 
mented  by  a  gown  or  a  pair  of  shoes,  which  were  chiefly  worn 
on  Sunday  at  kirk.  Even  in  mansions  of  people  of  rank  the 
cook  was  paid  between  £2  and  £3,  and  the  housekeeper,  like 
the  chaplain,  had  £5  a  year.  Only  gentlemen  of  fortune  had 
men  servants,  who  had  as  wages  about  £2  a  year  and  a  suit 
of  gaudy  livery  to  wear  out.^  The  nobleman  driving  in  his 
lumbering  coach,  brought  over  from  Holland,  had  two  of  these 
men  to  stand  behind  armed  with  long  poles,  which  might 
any  moment  be  called  into  request  when  the  vehicle  capsized 
in  some  deep  rut  or  over  a  huge  stone ;  the  "  running 
footman,"  with  a  staff,  went  on  in  front  to  see  that  the 
road  was  clear,  and  as  the  coach  with  six  horses  slowly 
proceeded  his  difficulty  was  not  to  keep  pace  with  it,  but  to 
avoid  so  far  outstripping  it  as  to  lose  sight  of  it  in  the  distance 
far  behind.^  In  more  moderate  style,  the  laird  when  he  went 
a  journey  took  with  him  one  of  his  labouring  men,  who  rode 
behind  carrying  the  cloak  bag  ;  and  the  ladies  rode  on  pillions 
or  on  their  own  nags,  a  bag  or  a  little  portmanteau  easily  con- 
taining their  simple  wardrobe  for  a  visit. 

The  tedium  of  the  country  needed  its  diversion,  and 
gentlemen  of  the  richer  class  indulged  in  hawking  with  eager- 
ness, and  at  home  had  their  games  at  bowls,  for  a  bowling- 
green  was  the  usual  adjunct  to  every  country-house.  Not  yet 
had  the  taste  for  planting  spread  among  the  lairds ;  and  the 
enclosing  of  land  and  rearing  of  hedges — the  plants  being 
imported   from   Holland — was    only   the   hobby   of   the    few 

^  House  servants  at  Cawdor  in  1716: — Chaplain,  100  merks;  butler,  60; 
cook,  60  ;  "cotchman,"  30;  2  footmen,  50;  2  gentlemen,  150;  and  chamber- 
maid, dairy  and  byre  women,  each  15  ;  the  gardener,  12  bolls;  shepherd, 
5  bolls  ;  maltman,  10  bolls. — Thanes  of  Cawdor  (Spalding  Club). 

^  Chambers'  Threiplaiuls  of  Fingask. 


1 6       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

enterprising  "  improvers."  They  loved,  however,  to  raise 
trees  around  their  mansions,  and  to  form  them  in  clusters 
to  shield  them  from  the  winds.  This  planting  was,  indeed, 
done  sparingly  and  cautiously ;  and,  comparing  their  very 
humble  efforts  to  rear  saplings  with  the  lavish  ventures  of 
a  later  generation,  we  find  something  touching  in  the 
simple  records  of  old  account  books  of  the  time,  recording 
the  tiny  orders  sent  to  the  one  nurseryman  in  Edinburgh 
and  the  minute  sums  expended  ^  for  "  a  pund  of  ackorns,"  "  a 
pund  of  beitch  masts,"  "  2  ounces  of  silver  fir  seed,"  "  4  ounces 
of  pitch  pine."  Imagining  that  it  was  no  use  planting  many 
a  stalwart  sort  of  forest  tree  in  the  open  land,  where  they  believed 
it  was  certain  to  be  killed  by  the  frost,  they  reared  them  only 
in  warm  nooks  round  the  house,  or  in  the  garden  and  orchard ; 
and  accordingly,  in  old  household  books,  seeds  of  walnut, 
chestnut,  and  sycamore  are  called  "  garden  seeds."  Wealthier 
proprietors,  whose  eyes  had  been  charmed  by  the  fantastic 
and  ingenious  grounds  at  Dutch  residences,  when  they  had 
been  in  exile  at  the  Hague  before  the  Eevolution,  began  at 
their  seats  to  make  gardens  with  prim  beds  and  curious 
labyrinthine  mazes,  alleys  of  yew  and  cedar,  holly  and  laurel.^ 
They  cut  their  shrubs  into  quaint  shapes  of  animals,  pagodas, 
hats,  and  urns ;  they  made  the  tortured  shrubs  form  tortuous 
paths ;  and  dearly  they  loved  to  lead  their  friends,  before 
dinner  was  ready,  through  the  lanes,  which  took  an  hour 
to  traverse  and  only  covered  one  acre  of  ground,  deriving 
unmitigated  satisfaction  at  watching  their  courteous  neighbour's 
fiftieth-time  well-simulated  surprise  at  losing  himself  in  the 
maze  and  suddenly  finding  himself  at  the  gate.^     These  whim- 

1  "1707.— To  2  puud  ackorns  to  sett  at  Woodhall,  12s.  (Scots)";  "Tea 
pund  of  beitch  masts,  £1  10s.  (Scots)." — Account  Book  of  Foulis  of  Ravelston,  p. 
447.  Dunbar's  Social  Life,  p.  148.  Amongst  seeds  ordered  for  Cawdor  Castle 
in  1736,  "1  lb.  of  ackorns,  Flanders  onions,  and  Dutch  parsneeps." — Book  of 
Thanes  of  Cawdor,  p.  425. 

2  Scots  Gardner,  by  J.  Reid,  1683. 

^  Arniston  Memoirs :  ScotV s  3IisceUa7ieous  Works:  Periodical  Criticism  {'La.ud- 
scape  Gardening),  etc.,  v.  88.  In  the  early  style,  everything,  lawns,  gardens,  must 
be  symmetrical  and  arranged  in  geometrical  figures  into  parallels  and  triangles. 
The  house  nmst  be  the  centre  to  which  all  walks,  trees,  and  hedges  converge  : 
"  as  the  sun  is  the  centre  of  the  world,  as  the  heart  is  the  centre  of  the  man,  as  the 
nose  is  the  centre  of  the  face,  and  it  is  unseemly  to  see  a  man  wanting  a  leg,  an& 


CO  UNTR  V  SOCIE TY  AND  CO  UNTR  Y  LIFE  1 7 

sical  horticultural  puzzles,  the  stiff  prim  parterres — marvels  of 
"  topiarian  "  art  which  had  seemed  ideals  of  art  and  of  beauty, — 
lasted  in  fashion  for  many  a  day.  By  the  latter  part  of  the 
century,  however,  the  grotesque  old  yews  and  hollies  had 
become  neglected ;  they  forgot  what  manner  of  beast  and 
object  they  once  had  been,  having  become  tangled  and  shape- 
less; and  when  after  1760  a  newly-created  admiration  for 
nature  had  arisen,  the  old  shrubs  were  uprooted,  the  borders, 
where  amid  the  weeds  the  intricate  geometrical  forms  could 
still  be  traced,  were  ruthlessly  dug  up,  and  old  formal  designs 
changed  to  the  "  admired  disorder  "  of  nature. 

With  incomes  small  and  tastes  simple,  gentry  dressed  in 
a  plain,  homely,  and  even  coarse  way.  At  home,  or  even 
to  kirk  and  market,  a  gentleman  went  about  in  homespun 
clothing  and  home-made  woollen  shirt,^  which  had  been 
spun  by  his  wife,  family  and  servants,  and  woven  by  the 
village  "wabster."  When,  in  later  days,  their  sons,  who  had 
seen  a  little  of  the  world  in  Edinburgh,  or  had  studied  in 
Leyden  or  Paris,  despised  the  rude  garments  of  their  elders, 
and  began  to  wear  Holland  material  for  shirts,  the  old  men 
were  only  induced  to  put  the  luxurious  stuff  on  their  shoulders 
and  arms  above  the  homely  woollen,  which  they  changed  but 
seldom.  Not  less  simple  in  their  ways  were  the  ladies,  who 
spun  the  material  of  much  of  their  clothing  and  made  it  into 
dresses  at  home.  If  they  bought  material,  it  was  country- 
woven,  and  a  lady  of  rank  was  quite  satisfied  to  get  a  "  Mussel- 
burgh stuff"  gown  by  the  carrier  at  the  cost  of  8s.^  Day  by 
day  in  kitchen  and  room  there  was  heard  the  flutter  of  the 

arm,  etc.,  or  his  nose  standing  on  one  side  of  his  face  or  not  straight  .  .  .  just 
so  with  a  man's  house,  gardens,  courts,  if  regularity  is  not  observed." — Scots 
Gardner,  1683.     Ca,T\y\es  Autobiography,  p.  7. 

^  Maxwell  of  Munches'  Recollections  of  1720  in  Murray's  Literary  History  of 
Galloway;  ItisLcky's  Journey  through  Scotland,  1729,  p.  271. 

-  "Table  and  body  linen  seldom  changed  and  but  coarse,  except  for  extra- 
ordinary occasions,  moving  necks  and  sleeves  of  better  kind  being  then  used  only 
by  the  best." — Spalding  Miscellany,  i.  p.  97.  (Sir  Alex.  Grant  of  Monymusk's 
Recollections  of  about  1720.)  Caldwell  Papers,  i.  260.  When  Drummond  of  Blair 
was  congratulated  on  the  accomplishments  of  his  son,  the  old  man  replied  that 
he  knew  nothing  his  son  had  learned  on  his  travels  but  "to  cast  a  sark  every 
day  and  to  eat  his  kail  twice " — alluding  to  the  customary  method  of  all 
"supping"  their  broth  from  the  same  dish. — Ramsay,  ii.  65. 

VOL.  I  2 


x8       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

rock  and  reel,  till  these  gave  way  about  1730  to  the  whir  of 
the  spinning-wheel,  making  the  yarn  of  the  wool  and  linen 
till  the  amount  of  plaiding  and  linen  filled  every  press  and 
box,  sufficient  to  "  plenish  "  the  homes  of  a  dozen  brides,  whose 
part  it  was  to  bring  a  full  store  of  napery  to  their  husbands' 
houses.  Plain  and  demure  of  dress  as  the  lairds  and  their 
families  might  be  at  home,  gentlefolks  had  their  bright  and 
gay  costume,  which  was  seen  in  its  full  glory  at  baptisms, 
marriages,  and  (in  the  early  days  of  the  century)  at  burials. 
While  the  plain-living  and  quiet-fashioned  were  content  to  go 
to  kirk  in  the  black  kelt  coat  of  their  ladies'  making,  others, 
though  they  went  about  in  the  morning  in  greasy  night- 
caps, coats  out  at  elbows,  and  dirty  night  or  dressingx 
gowns,^  in  public  appeared  in  their  coat  and  waistcoat  trimmed 
with  silver  or  gold,  their  silk  stockings  and  jack-boots,  with 
periwig  or  Eamilies  wig,  surmounted  by  the  laced  three- 
cornered  hat.  The  ladies  of  fashion  sallied  forth  in  their 
hoops,  which  in  Queen  Anne's  time  were  four  or  five  yards  in 
circumference,  covered  with  dress  of  silk  or  petticoats  of 
velvet  or  silk  bound  with  gold  or  silver  lace,  pinners  on  their 
heads  of  brocade  or  costly  lace  of  Flanders.^  But  however 
desirous  to  be  in  fashion,  every  Scots  lady  had  that  essential 
part  of  national  costume,  the  plaid,  wrapped  loosely  about  the 
head  and  body,  made  either  of  silk  or  of  wool  with  a  silken 
lining  of  bright  green  or  scarlet,  while  the  common  people  wore 
their  gaudy-coloured  plaids  of  coarse  worsted.  These  plaids 
were  the  ordinary  costume  of  the  ladies,  as  characteristic 
and  national  as  the  mantillas  of  Spain,  up  to  the  middle  of  the 
century,  when  at  last  they  gave  way  to  silk  and  velvet  cloaks.^ 
About  1725  and  1730  the  homely  ways  were  being  broken  in 
upon.     The  younger  men,  by  contact  with  the  Scottish  capital, 

^  Somerville,  p.  329  ;  Ramsay,  ii.  84. 

-  A  flowing  pemvig  was  a  costly  article.  Foulis  of  Ravelston  pays  in  1704 
for  ' '  a  new  long  perwig  7  guineas  and  a  halfe  "  ;  a  dress-wig  cost  him  only 
£14  :  6s.  Scots,  or  a  guinea  ;  a  new  hat  £7  Scots  ;  a  bob-wig,  a  guinea. — Accoiont 
Books,  pp.  325,  362.  In  1734  a  bob-wig  is  £1  :  10s  ;  cue-wig,  ribbons  and  rose, 
£1  :  10s. — Eases  of  Kilravock  (Spalding  Club),  p.  410. 

'  Burt's  Letters,  i.  82  ;  Macky's  Journey  through  Scotland,  p.  276.  Allan 
Ramsay  in  his  "Tartana"  deprecates  any  change  in  the  favourite  national 
costume  {Poems,  ii.  87)  ;  Ramsay,  ii.  88. 


CO  UNTR  V  SOCIETY  AND  CO  UNTR  Y  LIFE  19 

or  even  by  acquaintance  with  continental  life,  where  they  spent 
two  or  three  years  studying  law  or  medicine  at  Utrecht, 
Leyden,  or  Paris,  had  acquired  other  tastes.  When  abroad  they 
had  patriotically  vaunted  the  superiority  of  everything  Scottish  ; 
when  they  returned  they  surperciliously  lauded  everything 
foreign.  "  I  iind,"  says  that  most  shrewd  lady,  Mrs  Calder- 
wood  of  Polton,  "  I  find  it  is  the  truest  way  of  obtaining  to 
the  philosophical  principle  of  despising  everything  in  the 
world,  first  to  send  a  young  man  abroad  to  despise  the  Continent, 
and  to  bring  him  back  to  despise  his  own  island,"  ^  These 
young  men  of  mode,  winced  under  the  old  rough  habits  of  dress 
and  society  at  home,  and  tried  to  assume  a  finer  style,  display- 
ing their  new  fashions,  their  red  stockings  and  red-heeled  shoes, 
much  to  the  scandal  of  the  older  generation,  who  thought  it 
was  the  road  to  ruin.  To  quote  again  our  Laird  of  Borlum : 
"  Where  I  saw  the  gentleman,  lady  and  children  dressed  clean 
and  neat  in  home-spun  stuffs  of  her  own  sheep's  growth  and 
women's  spinning,  I  see  now  the  ladies  dressed  in  French  and 
Italian  silks  and  brocades  and  the  laird  and  his  son  in  English 
broadcloth."  ^  But,  in  extenuation  of  this  extravagance,  it  must 
be  considered  that  ladies'  dresses  did  not  in  Scotland  last  so 
short  a  time  as  nowadays  :  fashions  did  not  then  change  so 
rapidly  that  a  style  and  shape  admired  in  one  season  became 
the  "  fright "  and  atrocity  of  the  next.  The  dress  which  a  Scots 
lady  wore  when  middle  age  had  come  upon  her  had  probably 
been  part  of  her  wedding  trousseau,  and  ever  since  had  been 
put  on  with  care,  "  put  past "  with  caution,  aired  with  anxiety, 
and  worn  with  ceremony.^     Two  suits  or  costumes  formed  the 

^  Mrs.  Calderwood's  Joiorney,  p.  118. 

-  Essay  on  Enclosing,  etc.,  p.  232. — "In  every  mouth  we  hear  'The  country  is 
mightily  improved  since  the  Union.'  And  if  you  ask  wherein,  you  are  told,  '  If 
I  don't  see  how  much  more  handsomely  the  gentry  live  now  than  before  the 
Union  in  dress,  table  and  house  furniture  ?  .  .  .  This  epidemick,  this  increase  of 
spending — but  to  be  modish  and  well-bred,  I  ought  to  have  said  this  new 
improvement — has  in  these  20  years  strangely  over-run  the  nation  in  the 
very  remotest  corners  "  (p.  235). 

2  Ramsay,  ii.  90.  In  richer  families  the  outfitting  was  on  a  scale  then  deemed 
handsome.  When  the  daughter  of  tlie  Laird  of  Kilravock  was  married  the 
"  marriadge  "  bill  cost  £66  sterling,  including  "  floured  silk  stuff  at  13s.  6d.,  grien 
galloons,  whit  persian  taffety  for  gown  or  cot  at  7s.  6d.,  laced  shoes  at  5s.,  green 
silk  shaggrin  for  tryming  at  6s.,  a  mask  at  2s.  4d.,  and  patches  at  Is." — 
Roses  of  Kilravock,  p.  390.     The  tocher  was  9000  merks. 


20       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

wardrobe  of  a  lady  for  long  years,  even  in  Edinburgh  society. 
Young  ladies,  daughters  of  gentlemen  of  good  position  and 
means,  were  content  with  one  silk  gown,  and  occasional  use  of 
the  mother's,  which  she  had  got  when  she  was  as  young  as 
they. 

Fortunately,  in  the  early  decades  of  the  century,  fashions 
did  not  alter  with  bewildering  swiftness  even  in  England : 
years  passed  by  without  any  striking  change  in  the  modes 
of  the  day.^  Queen  Anne  cared  little  for  style,  and 
retained  in  her  dull  court  the  costumes  of  William  and  Mary. 
George  I.,  leaving  his  uncomfortable  consort  in  Hanover,  im- 
ported his  two  favourites,  who  were  too  obscure  and  stupid 
to  lead  any  society,  and  too  ugly — the  one  too  lean,  the  other. 
too  fat — to  follow  any  fashion.  And  so  habits  and  dresses 
then,  and  under  George  II.,  had  transformations  few  and  slow. 
Even  if  they  had  changed,  it  would  after  all  have  made  little 
difference — it  took  long  time  for  the  ways  of  London  to  reach 
provincial  seats  of  Scotland,  and  for  country  tailors  to  copy  the 
newest  modes  of  St.  James's.  What  greater  evidence  of  the 
simplicity  and  frugality  of  the  period  can  there  be  than  in  the 
fact  that  millinery  was  almost  an  unknown  occupation  in 
Scotland,  and  that  in  Edinburgh  in  1720  there  was  only  one 
milliner  for  its  fashionable  circles.^  When  ladies  were  not 
able  to  frame  dresses  for  themselves,  it  was  the  occupation 
of  tailors  to  make  them,  and  these  tradesmen  resented  and 
resisted  the  encroachments  of  mantua-makers  on  their  business 
and  what  they  deemed  their  legal  privileges.  In  rural  dis- 
tricts the  tailor  came  with  his  apprentices  on  his  rounds  to 
every  house,  made  up  the  stuff  into  suits  for  the  young  gentle- 
men and  dresses  for  the  ladies,  being  paid  his  2d.  or  3d.  a  day 
and  food.  Materials  were  not  easy  to  be  got,  for  the  shopkeepers 
of  country  towns,  in  their  little  earth-floored,  dark,  thatched 
houses,   had  little  room  for   varied   wares,  and   little  capital 

1  Fairholt's  History  of  Costume,  1860,  pp.  287,  293. 

^  Hamsay,  i.  163.  The  tailors  of  Perth  prosecuted  mantua-makers  as  intruders 
on  monopoly  got  from  William  the  Lion  of  making  men's  and  women's  apparel. 
They  lost  their  suit.  Boswell,  afterwards  Lord  Auchinleck,  was  counsel  for  the 
milliners.  The  Elgin  tailor's  bill  to  the  Laird  of  Thunderton  in  1719  shows  that 
he  made  "  stiched  night-gowns,"  and  for  her  ladyship  "scarlet  clocks  and  stitched 
stees." — Dunbar's  Social  Life,  p.  195. 


COUNTRY  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  2X 

wherewith  to  set  up  a  stock,  and  few  customers  to  buy  it.  It 
was  therefore  usually  by  the  carrier  conveying  goods  in  sacks 
on  horseback  from  the  distant  city  that  the  long-waited-for 
stuff  was  sent.  For  in  those  days  even  the  carriers  between 
Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  had  baskets  or  creels  for  their  parcels 
on  either  side  of  the  horse,  while  they  sat  between.  Packmen 
came  round  with  their  wallets  containing  a  strictly  limited 
assortment  of  wares  for  cottage  and  mansion.^  Travelling 
weavers  arrived  every  now  and  then  to  buy  from  ladies  and 
cottage  women  the  yarn  they  had  made,  and  to  sell  to  them  in 
exchange  tempting  webs  for  the  household.  Thus  the  quaint 
homely  life  went  on. 

Ill 

When  boys  were  old  enough  they  were  sent  to  the  parish 
school,  or  to  the  nearest  grammar  school,  where  the  Latinity 
was  better,  though  the  class  of  scholars  was  the  same.  Thither 
at  six  or  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  they  trudged,  carrying 
their  dinner  with  them,  and  not  returning  till  evening,  for  the 
school  hours  were  portentously  long.  Often  the  sons  of  great 
houses  boarded  with  the  teacher  of  the  burgh  school ;  lodging, 
food,  and  education  cost  but  a  few  pounds.^  In  fine  fraternity 
boys  of  all  ranks  met  in  wholesome  rivalry.  The  son  of 
the  nobleman  and  the  son  of  the  carpenter  sat  in  the  same 
room,  and  had  the  same  instruction ;  the  tenant  and  the  laird 
alike  paid  half  a  crown  or  three  shillings  a  quarter  for  their 
boys'  tuition  at  the  burgh  school,  and  the  laced  clothes  of  the 
lord's  heir  were  soon  as  shabby  and  as  little  regarded  as  the 
ragged  clothes  of  the  blacksmith's  son.  Eoughness,  vulgarities 
of  tone  and  manner,  were  doubtless  the  results  of  this  pro- 
miscuous association,  all  speaking  the  same  broad  Scots  tongue. 
But  much  was  rubbed  off  when  youths  went  to  college  and 
entered  society.     Otherwise,  a  boor  the  lad  began,  and  a  boor 

^  Glasgow  Past  and  Present,  ii.  69.  • 

-  Ramsay,  ii.  57  ;  Arniston  Memoirs ;  Sir  John  Clerk  of  Penicuik's  Memoirs. 
William  Murray  and  his  brother  were  boarded  by  their  father,  Lord  Stormont, 
in  1717,  with  the  Master  of  Pertli  Burgh  School — the  quarterly  payment  and 
board  for  the  two  boys  being  £60  Scots  (or  about  £5). — Campbell's  Lives  of  Chief 
Justices,  1874,  iii.  166. 


22       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

he  ended.^  The  friendly  contact  in  boyhood,  like  the  friendly 
intercourse  of  the  laird  with  his  people,  and  the  lady  with  her 
servants  over  the  spinning,  wrought  a  kindliness  and  attach- 
ment to  the  family,  which  was  a  marked  and  pleasant  feature 
in  old  stay-at-home  Scottish  society.  The  intimate  acquaint- 
ance of  even  ladies  of  high  rank  and  family  with  the  ways,  the 
talk,  the  customs,  the  sentiments  of  the  people,  shows  itself 
most  strikingly  in  the  songs,  so  steeped  in  Scottish  life  and  spirit, 
written  by  the  high  born — Lady  Anne  Lindsay,  Mrs.  Cockburn, 
Lady  Nairne — in  much  later  period.  It  was  not  without  love 
of,  and  familiar  association  with,  the  common  folk  that  any 
one  could  write  "  Auld  Eobin  Gray,"  the  "  Laird  o'  Cockpen," 
"  Eobin  Adair."  Yet,  with  all  this  familiarity,  there  was  not  • 
lacking  respect  for  the  family  of  the  "  big  house."  The  gentle- 
man was  inseparable  in  the  people's  regard  from  his  land,  by 
the  name  of  which  the  laird  was  called ;  while  his  wife  bore 
the  title  of  "  lady,"  not  of  "  Mrs.,"  and  was  spoken  of  as  her 
"  leddyship  "  in  full  deference.  To  be  "  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Shaw  of 
Balgarran  "  was  a  commonplace  thing ;  but  to  be  called  "  Bal- 
garran  "  and  "  My  Lady  Balgarran  "  was  indeed  a  satisfaction. 
The  education  of  girls  was  more  rudimentary,  far  more 
practical  than  intellectual  or  artistic ;  to  sew,  to  knit,  to 
spin,  were  the  chief  accomplishments  for  a  lady's  hands. 
To  read,  to  write — both  very  badly — to  play  a  little  on 
the  viol  or  virginal,  and  do  some  tambour  work,  were  the 
highest  feminine  achievements.  At  home  a  chaplain  probably 
taught  the  infantile  lessons,  and  sometimes  acted  as  tutor  and 
examined  in  the  Scriptures  and  Catechism.  If  a  governess  was 
required  she  could  be  got  cheap ;  that  she  was  extremely 
ignorant  was  a  mere  matter  of  detail.  For  five  pounds  sterling 
and  a  frock  an  instructor  of  youth  and  all  educational  require- 
ments could  be  hired  for  the  highest  families  ;  and  she  was  quite 
acceptable  although  she  knew  nothing  of  literature  or  languages, 
and  could  not  even  write  or  spell  respectably  in  her  own 
tongue.     The  Lady  Thunderton  in  1710,  for  example,  accepts 

^  "The  school  fees  at  Dunse  when  I  attended  school  (1752)  were  for  reading, 
Is.  ;  for  reading  and  writing,  Is.  6d.  ;  for  Latin,  2s.  6d.  per  quarter.  The  same 
fees  were,  I  believe,  charged  at  Kelso  and  Hawick." — Sonierville's  0?cti  Life, 
p.  348. 


CO UNTR  V  SOCIETY  A ND  CO UNTR  V  LIFE  23 

the  services  of  the  lady  who  applied  for  her  situation,  and  thus 
stated  her  qualifications  :  "  I  can  sow  white  and  coloured  seam, 
dress  head  suits,  play  on  treble  and  '  gambo/  viol,  virginal  and 
minicords,  at  threttie  pund  [Scots]  and  gown  and  coat;  or 
then  fourtie  pund  and  shoes  and  linen."  Anxious  for  the  post, 
this  accomplished  spinster  offers  "  to  serve  half  a  year  on  trial 
conform."  ^  After  acquiring  some  scraps  of  misinformation, 
which  left  them  perfectly  ignorant  or  delightfully  erroneous, 
the  daughters  were  sent  to  a  country  town  which  could  boast 
of  a  mistress  of  refined  education,  where  they  were  cheaply 
taught,  lodged,  and  boarded ; "  or  they  were  sent  to  Edinburgh, 
where,  in  some  lofty  flat  in  the  Lawnmarket  closes,  the  re- 
quisite branches  of  polite  instruction  were  taught  by  a  mistress, 
who,  being  a  poor  member  of  a  family  of  quality,  became  "  a 
mistress  of  manners,"  and  took  pupils  not  because  she  had  any- 
thing she  could  teach,  but  because  she  had  too  little  income 
to  live  on.  There  from  stately  lips  the  girl  learned  deport- 
ment, dancing,  knitting,  and  music  ;  how  to  handle  "gambo"  and 
virginal,  to  go  through  a  minuet,  to  carry  her  fan  with  grace, 
to  put  on  her  mask  with  propriety,  to  sip  her  tea  without 
making  a  noise,  to  sit  in  her  chair  without  touching  the  back. 
When  young  ladies  returned  home  as  "  finished  "  they  resumed 
their  household  work,  relearned  its  duties  and  unlearned  their 
lessons,  and  remained  throughout  their  days  uncontaminated 
by  literature.^     All  this  Arcadian  ignorance  made  them  the 

^  Dunbar's  Social  Life,  p.  14. 

^  The  fees  for  education  and  board  in  a  young  lady's  school  in  a  country  town 
were  modest,  though,  judging  from  the  spelling  and  grammar  of  the  receipts,  the 
teaching  was  short  of  perfection.  The  following  is  a  receipt  for  board  and 
education  of  two  young  ladies  at  Dyke  :  "  Received  the  soum  of  four  pund  Scots, 
and  that  for  Alex.  Dunbar  of  Belmachedie  his  two  daughters  (Meg  and  Ket), 
their  current  quarter  colledge  fie,  as  witnes  my  hand  at  Dyke  the  22nd  Dec. 
1709,  Alex.  Nicolson."  "Two  pound  sterlin,  and  that  for  Alex.  Dunbar  of 
Iklmuchitie  his  daughters  Meg  and  Kett,  their  quarterlie  board,  and  that  by 
me,  Janet  Dunbar.  In  witnes  wherof  I  have  subscybed  day  and  date  as  above 
written,  Janet  Dunbar." — Dunbar's  Social  Life,  p.  16.  Here  is  the  account  "to 
laird  of  Kilraick  for  his  daughter  Margaret's  board  and  education  in  Edinburgh 
in  1700.  One  quarter  bord,  £60  [Scots] ;  drawing  one  quarter,  14s.  lOd.  ;  one 
quarter  singing,  playing,  and  virginalls,  £11  :  12s.  ;  one  quarter  writing,  £6  ;" 
charges  also  for  "  satine  seame,  wax  fruitts. " — Hoses  of  Kilravock  (Spalding  Club), 
p.  388. 

2  In  Thanes  of  Caivdor,  p.  397,  is  given  a  lady's  library  of  the  more  pious 
type:   "Lady  Cawdor,  her  books  taken,  18th  Sept.  1705— Alain's  Godly  Fear, 


24       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

more  acceptable  in  society,  for  a  lady  so  learned  as  to  have 
read  Addison,  Steele,  and  Pope  was  regarded  with  trepidation 
by  the  men,  whose  acquaintance  with  letters  was  the  Sabbath 
hearing  of  discourses  from  Durham,  Eutherford,  and  Flavel  of 
godly  memory  but  ghastly  prolixity. 

In  the  old  homes  in  those  days  life  wore  a  grave  and 
sombre  aspect.  In  Presbyterian  famihes  especially  was  this 
the  case ;  for  the  taint  of  a  grim  creed  and  the  rigid  spirit 
of  the  Church  was  still  over  the  land.  It  was  an  age  of 
austerity  and  probation.^  Severity  was  the  characteristic  of 
school  discipline,  which  often  amounted  to  brutality,  and  rigour 
was  the  note  of  all  family  training,  in  which  the  Solomonic 
maxim  against  sparing  the  rod  and  spoiling  the  child  was 
orthodoxly  followed.  As  the  Church  taught  that  God  was 
constantly  punishing  His  children  on  earth  for  their  eternal 
good,  parents  copied  Providence  with  painful  exactitude,  and 
children  worked  out  their  domestic  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling.  Authority  and  fear  were  the  only  means  to  win 
obedience,  and  parental  love,  deep  as  it  must  have  been,  was 
sternly  concealed.  This  was  the  prevailing  spirit  of  family 
life  till  late  in  the  century.  "  My  children  from  the  youngest 
to  the  eldest  loves  me  and  fears  me  as  sinners  dread  death. 
My  look  is  law."  ^  These  words  of  the  vigorously-minded 
Lady  Strange  express  the  hard,  austere  spirit  prevailing  in 
many  a  household  and  the  dismal  discipline  of  every  nursery, 

Balm  of  Gilcad,  Sighs  from  Hell ;  Guthrie's  Christians  Great  Interest ;  Geddes' 
Saint's  Recreation  ;  Brown's  Swan  SoTig,  etc.,  with  Art  of  Comjolaisarux,  Book  of 
Psalmistry,  Rides  of  Civility, "  etc. 

1  The  vivid  memories  of  the  hard,  austere  training  of  old  days  are  found  in 
Miss  Mure  of  Caldwell's  Reminiscences;  Caldivell  Pajyers.  Similar  were  Lady- 
Anne  Barnard's  impressions :  "It  was  not  the  system  to  treat  children  with 
tenderness.  Everything  was  done  by  authority  and  correction.  I  have  been 
told  by  my  grandmother  that  this  was  so  in  a  still  gi'eater  degree  with  the 
former  generation,  when  no  child  was  allowed  to  speak  before  or  sit  down  iu 
company  of  their  parents.  This  I  well  remember,  that  a  mother  who  influenced 
her  children  to  do  right  through  their  atfection  was  at  Balcarras  reckoned  to  be 
unprincipled  and  careless,  and  accused  of  a  willingness  to  save  herself  trouble  if 
she  abolished  the  rod,  and  of  forgetfulness  of  the  laws  of  nature  by  allowing 
childi-en  to  look  on  their  parents  as  their  friends  and  companions." — Lives  of 
the  Lindsays,  ii.  304.  To  same  effect,  Somerville's  Life,  p.  348  ;  Fergusson's 
Henry  Erskine,  p.  62  ;  Lady  Minto's  Life  of  Sir  G.  Elliot,  first  Lord  Minto,  i.  22. 

^  Dennistoun's  Life  of  Strange,  i.  309. 


COUNTRY  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  25 

the  memory  of  which  was  burned  into  many  minds  that 
lived  to  see  more  genial  times.  In  the  household  the  head 
of  the  family  was  regarded  with  awe  as  at  table  he  presided 
with  his  hat  on,  and  as  he  sat  in  his  exclusive  seat  at  the 
chimney-corner.  In  his  presence  the  young  people  spoke 
in  fearful  whispers,  and  stood  respectfully  before  him  and 
answered  his  questions  with  humbleness.  There  was  no 
companionship  between  them,  no  confidences,  little  expression 
of  affection  between  children  and  parents.  This  distance  of 
manner  had  its  inevitable  results — pleasures  indulged  in 
furtively,  mirth  which  was  boisterous  beyond  parental  earshot, 
speech  which  was  coarse,  manners  unrefined,  and  ways  that 
were  rustic. 

Most  families  of  any  station  had  their  chaplains,  who  had 
miscellaneous  duties  and  an  equivocal  position  for  a  salary  of 
£5  "  with  board  and  washing,"  the  same  wages  as  were  given 
to  the  butler  and  housekeeper  in  great  families.^  The  duties 
were  to  conduct  family  worship,  at  meals  to  say  graces,  which 
were  too  long  to  be  said  fluently  by  lairds  whose  speech  was 
more  colloquial  than  devotional,  also  to  teach  the  children  the 
Catechism  and  examine  scripturally  the  servants  on  the  Sabbath. 
The  chaplain  was  usually  a  young  man  studying  for  the  Church, 
or  an  elderly  probationer  who  had  failed  to  get  one.  Besides 
his  religious  functions  he  acted  as  tutor  to  the  children  and 
made  himself  generally  useful  in  the  family.  When  at  a  noble- 
man's table  he  knew  his  part,  which  was  to  rise  when  the 
table-cloth  was  removed,  and,  making  obeisance,  respectfully  to 
remove  himself  as  well.^  On  Sunday  the  rules  and  exercises 
were  pious  and  fatiguing.^  The  order  of  the  day  began  at 
nine  o'clock  with  "  exercises  "  conducted  by  the  chaplain,  after 
which  all  regularly  set  forth  at  ten  o'clock  to  church,  returning 
at  half-past  twelve.      Then  followed  prayers  by  the  chaplain, 

1  In  1702  Foulis  of  Ravelston's  chaplain  has  £80  Scots.  Many  gentlemen 
still  kept  chaplains,  or  "governors,"  in  1760. — Sonierville,  p.  363.  In  the  list 
of  "servants'  fees"  in  1709  is  the  chaplain  at  100  nierks  at  Cawdor  House. — 
Book  of  Themes  of  Cawdorr  ;  Account  Book  of  Sir  J,  Foulis,  p.  13. 

^  Petrie's  Rules  of  Good  Deportment. 

^  Caldivell  Papers,  i.  260.  Such  was  the  order  of  the  day  in  the  household 
of  Lord  Advocate  Sir  James  Stewart  of  Goodtrees  (died  1713). — Oniond's  Lord 
Advocates  of  Scotland,  i.  279. 


26       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 

succeeded  by  a  little  cold  meat  or  an  egg — no  cooking  being 
allowed — and  after  the  slender  repast  all  returned  at  two  to 
church.-^  About  four  or  five  o'clock  they  all  came  back  to 
the  house,  when  each  retired  to  private  devotions  and  medita- 
tion, except  the  children  and  servants,  who  were  convened  by 
the  chaplain  and  examined  in  religious  knowledge.  This 
lasted  till  six  o'clock,  when  all  sat  down  to  a  substantial  hot 
supper,  for  which  long  abstinence  had  prepared  them,  and 
they  remained  at  table  till  eight.  Then  there  followed  singing, 
reading,  prayers,  conducted  by  the  head  of  the  house.  "  This," 
says  Miss  Mure  of  Caldwell,  "  was  the  common  order  in  all 
well-regulated  houses  up  to  1730."  In  the  days  when  the 
strain  of  piety  was  still  strong,  and  the  old  fervour  was  still 
vivid  in  society,  it  was  the  practice  to  retire  at  certain  hours 
for  private  meditation  and  prayer.  Every  country  house  had 
a  special  chamber  or  closet  to  which  the  head  of  the  household 
withdrew  ostensibly  for  pious  communion,  and  even  in  the 
houses  in  Edinburgh  flats,  scanty  as  the  accommodation  was, 
there  was  a  tiny  closet  or  oratory,  lighted  dimly  through  a 
narrow  window.^  This  religious  fashion  died  out  with  many 
another  old  devout  habit  about  the  middle  of  the  century,  and 

^  In  many  cases,  when  the  church  was  far  from  the  lah-d's  (or  lord's)  residence, 
he  had  a  cold  collation  served  in  the  room  at  the  kirk  adjoining  his  "loft."  In 
this  room  he  and  his  friends  lunched  or  dined  "  between  sermons,"  the  food  being 
carried  by  the  serving-man  or  brought  from  the  change-house  in  the  village. — 
Carlyle's  Autobiography,  p.  212.  "For  bread,  call  and  brandie  at  ye  kirk,  6 
shillings  (Scots),  Oct.  1706." — Accotmt  Book  of  FouHs  of  Ravclston.  In  these 
rooms  there  were  fireplaces,  and  they  were  warm,  while  the  church  was  unheated 
and  miserably  cold.  Such  a  private  fire  was  the  only  possible  cause  of  any  Scottish 
church  being  burnt,  as  in  case  of  Borthwick  Church.  An  indignant  Episcopalian 
describes  the  church  at  Fintray — built  in  1703  by  Sir  W.  Forbes  of  Craigievar — 
as  ' '  having  an  aisle  for  the  family  wherein  there  is  also  a  room  for  their  use,  and 
again  within  it  a  hearth,  cupboard,  etc.,  so  that  people  may  eat  and  drink,  and 
even  smoke  in  it  if  they  will  —  a  profaneness  unheard  of  in  antiquity  and 
worthy  of  the  age  we  live  in,  for  since  the  Revolution  the  like  liberty  has  been 
taken  in  several  churches  in  the  south." — Vicio  of  the  Diocese  of  Aberdeen 
(Spalding  Club),  p.  245. 

-  Chambers'  Ancient  Architecture  of  Edinburgh.  When  the  vivacious  and 
outspoken  Mrs.  Calderwood  of  Polton  was  in  Flanders  in  1756  she  observed 
pityingly  the  superstitious  ways  of  the  natives — "the  maddest  ideots  about 
papistry  that  ever  was, " — and  she  attributes  their  habit  of  going  to  church  during 
the  week  to  ' '  mumell  their  prayers  "  to  the  fact  that  ' '  there  is  no  closet  in  any 
room." — Journey,  p.  178. 


CO  UNTR  V  SO CIE  TY  AND  CO  UNTR  Y  LIFE  27 

the  closets  were  turned  to  purposes  more  secular  and  probably 
more  sincere. 

In  the  homes  of  lairds  of  the  Episcopalian  persuasion  a 
more  genial  atmosphere  was  found,  less  religious  austerity,  less 
Sabbatarian  rigour.  They  took  the  pleasures  of  life  less  sadly, 
and  the  enjoyments  of  earth,  dancing,  concerts,  even  theatres, 
were  in  their  eyes  harmless  and  delightful.^  In  their  book- 
shelves— never  very  crowded — were  secular  books,  romances 
and  plays,  besides  decorous  history  and  classics,  which  no  pious 
Presbyterian  would  allow  to  pollute  his  room.  Whilst  on 
Sunday  the  Presbyterian  gentleman  took  a  sparing  refection 
of  bread  and  an  egg  or  cold  beef,  "  between  sermons,"  merely 
to  allay  the  acute  pangs  of  hunger,  reserving  his  energies  and 
carnal  appetite  for  the  supper,  the  other,  after  going  to  his 
"  meeting-house,"  had  a  substantial  meal  at  mid-day,  having  no 
scruples.  Hence  it  was  a  common  saying  that  "  if  you  would 
live  well  on  Sunday  you  must  take  an  Episcopalian  dinner 
and  a  Presbyterian  supper."^  Yet  many  old  Episcopalians, 
especially  if  they  were  Jacobites,  observed  religious  fasts  and 
ceremonies  as  strictly  as  any  high-flying  Presbyterian  observed 
his  days  of  humiliation.  The  Jacobites  and  non-jurors  managed 
strangely  to  associate  the  right  divine  of  the  papistical  Stuarts 
with  the  right  divine  of  Protestant  prelacy,  and  loved  to 
assume  great  deference  for  ecclesiastical  rules,  days,  and  seasons, 
more  to  spite  the  Whigs  than  to  please  their  consciences. 
Christmas  was  to  them  a  time  of  reunion,  of  much  family  and 
neighbourly  festivity,  which  lasted  during  the  week  which  they 
called  'par  excellence  the  "  holidays,"  though  these  were  con- 
temptuously nicknamed  by  the  others  the  "  daft  days."  During 
Lent  the  straitest  of  the  sect  tried  their  loyal  best  to  fast, 
which  they  did  by  refraining  at  least  from  snuff.  If  they  went 
into  a  chapel  which  had  been  licensed,  and  therefore  recognised 
the  reigning  monarch,  they  would  enter  the  tainted  edifice  only 
on  condition  that  when  His  Hanoverian  Majesty  was  being 
prayed  for  they  might  rise  from  their  knees,  on  pretext  of 
searching   their   coat-pockets   for  their  snuff-box,  over  which 

^  "The  Episcopalian  ladies  are  more  cheerful  in  their  demeanour  than  the 
Presbyterian."— Burt's  Letters,  i.  206. 
2  Ibid.  i.  204. 


28       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 

they  fumbled  till  the  petition  for  "  long  life  "  to  his  objection- 
able majesty  was  ended.^  Meanwhile  the  old  Presbyterians 
despised  keeping  "  Yule  "  as  a  miserable  superstition,  approved 
highly  of  schoolmistresses  who  gave  parties  to  their  pupils  on 
Good  Friday,  spoke  of  the  goose  as  a  "  superstitious  bird  " ;  ^ 
and  parish  ministers  had  been  known  to  visit  their  people  in 
the  North,  where  prelatic  follies  might  linger,  on  the  forenoon 
of  the  25th  of  December  to  see  and  to  smell  if  any  erroneous 
preparations  were  going  on  for  a  better  dinner,  and  any  savoury 
pots  were  on  the  fire  for  a  Popish  feast.^ 

These  Jacobite  families  had  their  own  customs,  their  own 
prejudices,  their  special  loyalties,  with  which  no  Whig  stranger 
could  meddle.  They  loved  to  consort  with  their  own  kind, 
having  a  political  and  ecclesiastical  creed  and  antipathy  in 
common,  where,  as  the  glass  went  round,  they  could  pledge 
the  true  king  and  curse  the  Hanoverian  intruder.  It  was  un- 
pleasant in  Whig  society,  when  every  one  gave  a  health  and 
every  one  must  cheer  a  sentiment,  to  save  their  consciences  by 
secretly  passing  the  bumper  across  the  water-jug,  to  signify 
they  drank  to  the  king  "  over  the  water."  Presbyterianism 
with  its  gloom,  and  its  ministers  with  their  severity  and 
woeful  piety,  moved  them  with  wrath  or  stirred  them  to  mirth. 
Merriment  went  round  the  supper-table  as  some  rollicking  voice 
broke  out  with  the  lay  of  the  "  Cameronian's  (or  Presbyterian's) 
cat,"  ^  with  its  most  doleful  tragedy  : — 

There  was  a  Cameronian  cat  was  hunting  for  his  prey, 

And  in  the  house  she  catched  a  mouse,  upon  the  Sabbath  day. 

The  Whig,  being  offended  at  such  an  act  profane, 

Laid  by  his  book,  his  cat  he  took,  and  bound  it  with  a  chain. 

"Assure  thyself  that  for  this  deed  thou  blood  for  blood  shalt 

For  killing  of  the  Lord's  own  mouse,  upon  the  Sabbath  day." 

And  straight  to  execution  poor  baudrons  he  was  drawn, 

And  high  hanged  up  upon  a  tree, — Mess  John  he  sung  a  psalm. 

1  Jacobite  Lairds  of  Gash,  p.  385  ;  Burt's  Letters,  i.  205. 
^  Ramsay,  ii.  73  ;  Somerville,  p.  345. 

^  Dunbar's  Social  Life,  p.  128  ;  Chambers'  Popular  Rhymes,  3rd  edit.  p.  294. 
■*  Hogg's  Jacobite  Relics,  1819,  p.  209.     Scott,  in  Fasti  Eccles.  Scot.,  identifies 
the  hero  of  the  song  with  a  minister  in  the  north  of  Scotland. 


COUNTRY  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  29 

Wliere  was  there  such  pleasant  intercourse  as  in  these 
Jacobite  circles  ?  There  was  full-bodied  heartiness  in  their 
hates  and  a  cheerfulness  in  their  kinships ;  their  absurd 
prejudices  had  a  flavour  of  lovable  quaintness.  Their  unshaken 
belief  in  the  virtues  and  kingly  graces  of  the  Stuarts  had  a 
touching  idolatry.  There  could  not  be  seen  a  spot  in  the 
son,  nor  yet  the  grandson,  of  James ;  and  ladies,  who  sang 
charming  Jacobite  songs,  to  still  more  charming  airs,  wrote 
Jacobite  letters,  in  which  they  raved  wildly  and  spelt  lament- 
ably. What  fire  fills  the  elderly  bosom  of  Miss  Christian 
Threipland  ^  as  she  expresses  her  ardent  enthusiasm  ! — "  Oh, 
had  you  beheld  my  Hero,  you  must  confess  him  a  Gift  from 
heaven.  I  never  saw  such  vivacity,  such  piercing  Wit,  worn 
with  a  fine  Judgement  and  an  active  Genius.  ...  In  short, 
madam,  he  is  the  Top  of  perfection  and  Heaven's  darling." 
Woe  to  the  heedless  who  unguardedly  spoke  of  the  Prince  as 
Pretender  !  "  Pretender,  forsooth  !  and  be  dawm'd  to  ye  !  "  ^ 
flared  out  Lady  Strange,  as  she  eyed  with  scorn  a  maligner, 
who  began  to  wish  he  had  never  been  born.  Thus  they  swore 
by  the  Stuarts,  as  they  swore  at  the  Georges. 


IV 

Paid  as  the  lairds  were  chiefly  "  in  kind,"  there  was  little 
money  at  their  disposal,  and  even  after  the  grain  rent  had 
been  sold  in  the  market,  it  produced  but  little.^  It  is  not 
surprising,  therefore,  that  the  gentry  were  miserably  poor. 
The  nobles  and  lairds  were  constantly  at  their  wits'  end  to  get 
means  to  pay  their  way,  and  were  obliged  to  live  sparingly. 
It  was  a  tradition  *  that  in  the  days  of  Scots  Parliament  at 
the  beginning  of  the   century,  when  the  session   closed,  the 

1  R.  Chambers'  ThrciplaTuls  of  Fingask,  p.  43. 

-  Dennistoun's  Life  of  Sir  Robert  Strange,  ii.  213. 

'  Lord  Strathmore  about  1690  inherited  one  of  the  largest  estates  in  Scotland, 
which  was  valued  at  560  chalders  victual  and  100  marks  of  rent. — Book  of  the 
Eecords  of  Glamis,  Introd.  p.  64. 

*  Burton's  Hist,  of  Scot.  1689-1748,  i.  421.  The  modesty  of  the  incomes  of 
the  most  eminent  of  professional  society  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  before  the 
Union  the  Lord  President  had  £500  a  year,  and  the  fifteen  judges  only  £200, 
though  five  had  £100  additional.  After  the  Union  the  salaries  were  raised  to 
£1000  and  £500  respectively. 


30       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Canongate  jail  was  crowded  with  peers,  whom  their  creditors 
could  seize  the  raoment  the  period  of  immunity  had  ceased. 
When  in  difficulties  it  was  hard  to  raise  money  by  any 
expedient.  There  were  no  banks  except  in  Edinburgh,  and 
from  these  little  aid  could  be  got.  Although  some  shop- 
keepers ^  offered  to  lend  money  on  good  security,  the  chief 
means  of  raising  funds  was  through  the  country  "  writers," 
who  found  money  which  was  lent  on  wadset — the  land  mort- 
gaged becoming  the  possession  of  the  lender  if  the  debt  was 
not  paid  by  a  certain  date.  Many  a  laird  who  had  tried  in 
vain  to  save  money  for  "  tochers  "  to  his  daughters  was  forced 
at  their  marriage  to  mortgage  his  property,^  and  lived  with 
the  load  of  wadset  upon  his  mind  and  land.  Hardly  a  laird 
or  lord  was  free  of  debt,  or  had  an  estate  unburdened.  He 
could  not  borrow  a  few  pounds  without  getting  two  or  three 
neighbours  to  become  security  as  "  cautioners."  There  was 
many  an  interview  in  the  taverns  of  Edinburgh  or  county 
towns,  when  business  was  transacted  over  ale  or  wine  with 
the  lawyer,  discussing  anxiously  the  ways  of  finding  means. 

There  was  little  coin  in  circulation  in  the  country ;  and 
in  the  scarcity  bonds  and  bills  were  negotiable  as  substitutes. 
Cases  were  not  infrequent  of  these  bonds  being  bought  by 
persons  who  disliked  the  issuer  or  liked  his  land,  and  forced 
him  to  part  with  his  acres  to  meet  his  liabilities.^  Too  many 
of  the  landowners  had  those  possessions  which  were  tradition- 
ally ascribed  to  the  Eifeshire  lairds :  "  a  pickle  land,  a  mickle 
debt,  a  doocot  and  a  lawsuit."  ^     Coins  in  the  first  half  of  the 

^  In  1730  James  Blair,  merchant  at  the  head  of  the  Saltmarket,  Glasgow, 
announces  that  at  his  shop  ' '  all  persons  who  have  occasion  to  buy  and  sell  bills  of 
exchange,  or  want  money  to  borrow,  or  have  money  to  lend  on  interest,  or  have 
sort  of  goods  to  sell,  or  want  to  buy  any  kind  of  goods,"  etc.  "may  deliver  their 
commands." 

-  Burt's  Letters,  i.  240. — "The  portion  or  tocher  of  a  laird's  eldest  daughter  is 
looked  upon  as  a  handsome  one  if  it  amounts  to  1000  merks,  which  is  £55  :  11 :  \h, 
and  10,000  merks,  or  £555:11  : 1,  is  generally  esteemed  no  bad  tocher  for  a 
daughter  of  the  lower  rank  of  quality." 

^  Book  of  Records  of  Glamis,  Introduction. 

*  An  unpublished  letter  of  Jean  Carnegy,  Lady  Kinfauns,  to  her  factor  shows 
the  inconveniences  of  a  victual  rent.  "Sir  ...  I  doo  indeed  think  the  pry ces 
of  the  victuall  are  so  low  that  it  may  very  well  be  called  a  Drugg  ;  but  since  it 
is  universally  soo,  and  there  is  noo  hopes  of  its  rysing  it  can't  be  helped,  and 
considering  the  quantity  I  have  to  dispose  of  is  but  small,  and  that  putting  the 


CO UNTR  Y  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR  Y  LIFE  3 1 

century  were  not  sufficient  for  the  currency  needs  of  the 
country ;  gold  was  never  seen ;  silver  was  exceedingly  scarce, 
especially  after  all  the  Scots  coinage  had  been  called  in  subse- 
quent to  the  Union.  In  default  of  Scots  or  English  money, 
foreign  coins  were  in  ready  use,  and  money  which  came  from 
Holland,  Spain,  and  France  was  welcome,  though  it  was  far 
from  plentiful,  because  the  imports  much  exceeded  the  exports. 
Leg -dollars,  rix- dollars,  guilders  and  ducatoons  ^  were  of 
service  as  home  currency  ;  but  these  became  still  scarcer,  owing 
to  their  being  drawn  to  England  for  the  wars.  The  gentle- 
man when  he  paid  his  physician  paid  him  "  five  duccadoons," 
or  a  "jacobus,"  as  substitute  for  a  guinea.  Although  the 
Bank  of  Scotland,  and  after  1727  the  Eoyal  Bank,  issued  £1 
notes,  even  that  represented  a  sum  which  merchants  and  their 
customers  found  it  highly  inconvenient "'  to  change,  while  the 
owner  of  a  £10  note  might  ransack  half  a  dozen  county 
towns  without  finding  a  merchant  with  silver  enough  to  cash 
it.^  For  any  one  travelling  this  dearth  of  coins  was  a  serious 
difficulty ;  and  as  he  could  get  no  accommodation  by  banking 
accounts,  he  put  his  money  in  his  saddle  or  carriage-bags,  to 
last  him  till  his  return.  A  great  nobleman  like  the  Duke  of 
Eoxburgh,  when  living  in  London  as  Secretary  for  Scotland  in 
1720,  used  to  have  £100  monthly  sent  to  him  from  home  by 
waggon ;  *  but  modest  members  of  Parliament  were  in  sore 
straits  when  their  frugal  finances  vanished  in  southern  society 
like  snow  in  sunshine.  No  wonder  it  was  difficult  to  set  the 
Scots  members  to  attend  to  their  duties  at  "Westminster,  and 
the  piteous  appeals  to  undergo  the  expense  and  trouble  of 
travelling  and  staying  in  the  south  were  sent  in  vain  by  the 
Secretary  for  Scotland.  It  was  owing  to  this  stress  for  money 
that  gentlemen  often  paid  their  tradesmen,  as  they  themselves 

meall  in  girnill  must  be  both  troublesome  and  expensive,  and  that  it  would  be 
very  inconvenient  for  the  Tennents  to  oblige  them  to  keep  their  oats  in  their 
hands,  I  referr  it  to  yourself  to  dispose  of  it  to  the  best  advantage  you  can. 
25th  Ffebruary  1725." 

^  Account  Book  of  Foulis  of  llavelston.     The  foreign  monies  in  frequent  use 
were  leg-dollars  =  £2  :  16s.  Scots,  rix-doUars  =  £2  :  18s.  Scots,  guilders  =  £l  :  2  : 
Scots,  ducatoons=£3  :10s.  Scots. 

2  The  £1  Note,  by  AV.  Graham  ;  Kerr's  Hist,  of  Scottish  Banhing. 

^  Letters  of  Two  Centuries,  edited  by  Fraser  JIackintosh,  p.  213. 

*  Somerville's  Own  Life,  p.  353. 


32       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

were  paid  by  their  tenants,  "in  kind,"  The  weaver,  the 
blacksmith,  and  the  joiner  were  allowed  as  part  wages  so 
many  firlots  of  oats  or  of  barley ;  and  sometimes  the  pay  of 
mechanics  about  the  house  was  reckoned  in  so  much  grain  a 
year.^  The  lack  of  metal  currency  was  a  chronic  distress  in 
Scotland,  and  caused  incessant  inconvenience  long  after  the 
increase  of  rents  and  the  growth  of  trade  had  relieved  every 
class  from  poverty. 

The  great  domestic  problem  in  every  age  with  parents  is 
how  to  get  their  daughters  "  off "  and  how  to  get  their  sons 
"  on."  Especially  perplexing  was  this  question  in  the  first 
half  of  the  century,  when  there  were  extremely  few  openings 
for  the  sons  of  gentlemen,  little  trade,  a  meagre  commerce, 
and  few  industries  ;  when  the  army  called  forth  little 
enthusiasm  in  the  Scots  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  English ; 
when  the  colonies  had  not  yet  opened  their  avenues  to 
fortune.  Many  a  gentleman  sent  his  eldest  son  after  being 
.at  college  to  a  lawyer's  office  to  pick  up  some  knowledge  of 
law  and  business  useful  for  his  future  estate.  Unfortunately, 
he  often  acquired  just  enough  legal  lore  to  make  him  litigious 
all  his  days,  to  be  ever  alert  to  raise  actions  against  aggressive 
neighbours,  and  in  his  rubicund  age  to  rejoice  in  having  many 
a  "  guid-ganging  plea."  ^  Legal  processes  were  incessant,  for 
legal  precedents  were  not  plentiful  enough  to  give  clear 
guidance — thereby  adding  to  the  glorious  uncertainty  of  the 
law,  and  to  the  certainty  of  fortunes  for  lawyers.      Younger 

^  Arniston  Memoirs,  p.  50.  At  Arniston,  farm  labourers,  wright,  smith,  and 
even  "bedall"  figure  in  the  factor's  books  for  so  many  bolls  of  grain  yearly. 
Even  in  1780  the  practice  was  not  abandoned.  At  Cawdor  House  the  gai'dener 
is  paid  12  bolls,  the  shepherd  5  bolls,  and  the  maltster  10  bolls  of  oats  yearly  as 
wages.  — Book  of  Thanes  of  Caivdor. 

2  The  law  dealt  out  its  decisions  with  imperturbable  deliberation  in  those 
■days.  A  process  of  spuilzie  of  6  bolls  of  seed  oats  committed  by  Major  Fraser 
continued  before  the  Court  of  Session  for  twelve  or  thirteen  years. — Major  Preiser's 
Manuscript,  ii.  101.  Another  case — spuilzie  of  horses  from  Laird  of  Thunderton 
in  1716 — gained  decree  in  favour  of  aggrieved  party  against  Lord  Lovat  and  his 
kinsman  six  years  after  ;  but  the  process  still  went  on  for  fifty  years,  long  after 
the  litigants  were  dead.  Law-pleas  became  heirlooms.  Arch.  Dunbar  began 
proceedings  against  Lovat  in  1722,  and  died  in  1733,  leaving  his  debts  and  his 
process  to  his  daughters.  In  1749  it  was  conveyed  to  Arch,  Dunbar  of  Newton, 
three  years  after  the  chief  debtor,  Lord  Lovat,  was  beheaded.  The  amount  of 
original  decree  was  £88  ;  by  1749  it  had  risen  to  £249.— /izd  i,  83-84, 


CO UNTR Y  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR Y  LIFE  33 

sons  had  a  small  range  of  employments  to  choose  from  in  the 
absence  of  commerce  and  colonial  enterprise.  The  professions 
were  open ;  but  till  near  the  middle  of  the  century  medicine 
was  little  taught  in  the  country,  and  those  who  wished  to 
learn  this  subject  required  to  study  it  in  the  medical  schools 
of  Leyden,  or  Paris.  The  Church,  of  course,  was  a  shut  career 
to  the  Episcopalian  by  its  polity,  and  an  unattractive  career  to 
many  a  Presbyterian  from  its  austerity  and  fanaticism.  The 
law — especially  the  Bar — was  the  best  profession  for  a  gentle- 
man's son  who  wished  to  live  by  his  brains  and  associate  with 
his  equals.  But  even  that  was  for  the  few.  It  was  therefore  in 
trade  that  younger  sons  of  good  family  often  sought  a  livelihood.^ 
It  was  not  considered  below  their  dignity  to  become  apprentices 
to  shopkeepers,  who  under  the  vaguely  comprehensive  title  of 
"  merchant "  might  deal  in  anything  from  tallow-candles  to 
brocade,  from  tobacco  to  Tay  pearls.  In  small  low-ceilinged 
rooms  in  a  second  or  third  flat  in  the  Edinburgh  High  Street 
the  best  merchants  had  their  shops.  Silversmiths,  clothiers, 
woollen  drapers,  were  frequently  men  of  good  birth  and  social 
position.  The  brother  of  a  proud  land  proprietor  did  not 
disdain  to  sell  in  his  cramped,  ill-lighted  wareroom  so  many 
yards  of  shalloons  or  "  Kilmarnocks " ;  for  in  those  days  a 
gentleman's  son  felt  it  as  natural  to  fall  into  trade  as  for  a 
rich  tradesman  to  rise  out  of  it.  Country  towns  like  Elgin  or 
Inverness  had  their  "  merchants,"  alias  shopkeepers,  who  were 
often  connected  with  the  best  families  in  the  country,  who 

^  Many  curious  illustrations  of  this  union  of  trade  with  high  lineage  and 
good  family  can  be  given.  Among  the  silk  mercers  in  Edinburgh  were 
"John  Hope  and  Co." — Hope  being  younger  son  of  Hope  of  Rankeillor,  the 
partners,  Stewart  and  Lindsay,  sons  of  landed  proprietors ;  among  the  drapers 
was  the  firm  of  "  Lindsay  and  Douglas" — the  former  younger  son  of  Lindsay  of 
Eaglescairney,  the  latter  of  Douglas  of  Garvaldfoot ;  and  the  firm  of  "  Douglas 
and  Inglis  " — the  one  being  son  of  Douglas  of  Fingask,  the  other  was  younger  son 
of  Sir  John  Inglis  of  Cramond,  and  succeeded  to  the  baronetcy.  Another  firm 
which  dealt  in  cloth  in  a  small  warehouse  in  a  flat  was  ' '  Hamilton  and 
Dalrymple,"  the  latter  being  younger  brother  of  Lord  Hailes.  The  leading 
partner  of  Stewart,  Wallace  and  Stoddart,  was  Stewart  of  Dunearn. — Chambers' 
Ediniurgh  Merchants  of  Old  Times.  In  1678  the  son  of  Sir  Ludovic  Gordon,  the 
premier  baronet  of  Scotland,  finished  his  apprenticeship  to  R.  Blackwood, 
merchant,  burgess  of  Edinburgh,  learning  "his  airt  and  trade  of  merchandizing." — 
Dunbar's  Social  Life,  p.  140.  Kerr  of  Boughtrigg,  jeweller,  and  afterwards  M.P., 
married  the  daughter  of  Lord  Charles  Kerr. — Kay's  Edinhurgh  Portraits,  i.  104. 
VOL.  I  3 


34       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

sold  linen  and  wine,  lent  money,  and,  perhaps,  finally  bought  an 
estate.  The  lady  reduced  in  fortune  who,  in  Inverness,  followed 
the  business  of  milliner  and  dressmaker,  to  pay  off  her  father's 
debts,  was  not  less  respected  and  visited  by  my  Lady  Lovat 
because  she  made  and  charged  for  stays  and  stomachers.^  It 
was  thought  quite  natural  that,  though  Balgarran  had  been  three 
hundred  years  in  the  family,  the  Lady  Balgarran  should  advertise 
that  "  she  and  her  daughters,  having  attained  to  great  perfec- 
tion in  making  and  twisting  sewing  thread  which  is  cheap 
and  white,"  sold  it  at  "from  fivepence  to  six  shillings  an  ounce." ^ 
It  was  not  rare  for  lads  of  good  degree  in  those  impecunious 
times  even  to  become  "  hecklers "  or  flax-dressers,  to  serve 
apprenticeship  to  joiners  and  ship-carpenters.^  The  fact  that 
the  sons  of  men  of  good  family  often  followed  the  calling  of 
village  tradesmen  is  the  clearest  proof  of  the  poverty  in 
which  gentry  were  often  sunk.  Hessian  officers  stationed  in 
the  Highlands  after  the  Kebellion  of  '45  were  astonished  to 
find  innkeepers  able  to  converse  with  them  in  Latin,  these 
doubtless  being  men  of  good  birth  who  were  obliged  to  follow 
any  occupation — even  in  a  wretched  mountain  hostelry — 
which  would  give  them  a  livelihood.  Even  noblemen  were 
occasionally  reduced  to  the  sorest  straits  of  poverty,  when 
their  lands  were  burdened  with  debts  and  wadsets. 

^  Letters  of  Two  Centxiries,  p.  244. 

^  Chambers'  Domestic  Annals,  iii.  510. 

^  Cases  of  the  reduction  of  men  of  good  birth  to  lowly  occupations  are  far 
from  uncommon.  Wemyss,  Governor  of  Edinburgh  Castle,  son  of  Wemyss  of 
Wemyss  Hall,  began  life  as  a  "heckler"  or  flax-dresser.  Sir  Michael  Malcolm, 
■who  married  the  daughter  of  Lord  Bathurst,  had  been  trained  as  a  joiner  in 
London. — Chambers'  Traditions  of  Edinburgh,  ii.  pp.  33,  47.  In  1710  Mr. 
Dunbar  at  Inverness  writes  to  his  cousin  Dunbar  of  Thunderton  a  letter  of  intro- 
duction for  and  by  William  Macleod,  "  a  joiner  to  his  employment,  that  lived  in 
this  place  a  year  following  his  trade,  has  served  his  apprenticeship  in  Edinburgh, 
and  thrie  yeares  a  journeyman  in  London  ;  he  is  brother  of  Donald  Macleod  of 
Geanies,  and  coosin  german  of  Catbolls  [these  being  two  of  the  principal  families 
of  the  Macleod  clan],  and  as  I  understand  is  in  tearms  of  marriadge  with  our 
coosin  Christian  Dumbreck  and  goes  yr  lenth  of  purpose  to  ask  your  consent  and 
countenance." — Dunbar's  Social  Life,  p.  143.  In  1732  Lord  Strathnaver  writes  to 
the  master  builder  at  Sheerness  recommending  the  son  of  a  brother  officer.  Major 
Dunbar  :  "The  young  man  has  choysed  the  employment  of  a  ship-carpenter,  let 
me  know  on  what  terms  you  accept  the  young  gentleman." — Ibid.  2nd  series, 
p.  126.  See  Bishop  Forbes'  Diary  and  Church  of  Moray,  p.  244  ;  Burton's  Life 
of  David  Hume,  i.  197  ;  Dennistoun's  Life  of  Sir  R.  Strange,  i.  70. 


CO  UNTR  Y  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR  Y  LIFE  35 

One  other  reason,  however,  may  be  given  for  the  fact  that 
sons  of  gentlemen  of  position  held  humble  places  in  life.  That 
was  the  scruple  which  staunch  Jacobites  entertained  at  enter- 
ing any  occupation  which  required  them  to  take  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  Hanoverian  king.  This  objection  closed  to 
these  very  conscientious  persons  the  Bar  (although  it  was 
regarded  as  sorely  tainted  with  Jacobitism),  and  it  closed 
against  them  also  the  army  and  every  government  post.  In 
their  necessity  not  a  few  became  shopkeepers  or  tenants  of 
small  farms  on  the  estates  of  elder  brothers,  or  other  branches 
of  the  family,  where  they  lived  humbly  in  a  mean  thatched 
farmhouse,  and  tilled  a  poor  hundred  acres,  though  they  were 
members  of  the  best  families  in  the  land.^ 

The  Highland  gentleman  when  reduced  to  poverty,  or  in 
difficulty  of  finding  occupation,  rarely  bemeaned  himself  so  far 
as  to  become  a  manufacturer  or  shopkeeper.  He  would  take 
a  farm,  become  a  small  tacksman  or  wadsetter  of  a  chief,  or 
keep  an  inn.  A  gentleman  of  Highland  blood  scorned  to 
handle  an  ell-wand ;  but  he  would  fill  an  ale-stoup,  and  many 
a  remote  hostelry  in  the  north  was  kept  by  a  cadet  of  good 
family,  who  was  versed  in  manners  and  scholarship,  and  sur- 
prised southern  customers  by  his  pride  and  his  Latinity.^  Yet 
one  more  occupation  was  deemed  not  unworthy  of  the  dignity 
of  Highland  gentry ;  for  at  Crieff  Trysts,  where  the  droves  of 
black  cattle  were  brought  from  far-off  glen  and  strath  to  be 
bought  by  English  graziers,  there  were  to  be  seen,  selling 
their  oxen,  gentlemen  of  long  pedigree,  "  mightily  civil-dressed 
in'  their  slashed  waistcoats,  trousings  and  blue  bonnets,  with 
their  poniards  and  broadswords,  all  speaking  Irish."  ^  "When 
taunted  by  his  brother.  Lord  Seafield,  with  carrying  on  such 

^  Gleig's  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  \>.  vii.  ;  Tytler's  Life  of  Lm-d  Karnes, 
vol.  i. 

^  Gentleman's  Magazine,  1754. — "  It  is  not  uncommon  to  see  a  lord  dismount 
from  his  horse,  and  taking  one  of  these  gentlemen  in  his  arms  make  him  as 
many  compliments  as  if  he  were  his  brother  peer,  and  the  reason  is  that  the  ale- 
house keeper  is  of  as  good  family  as  any  in  Scotland,  and  perhaps  taken  his 
degree  of  master  of  arts  in  a  university."  Ramsay's  Scotland  and  Scotsmen,  ii. 
518,  note  ;  Stewart's  Sketches  of  Ilighlands,  1822,  ii,  p.  xxx.  JIajor  Fraser,  who 
was  henchman  and  friend  of  Lord  Lovat,  was  obliged  to  keep  an  inn  in  Inverness. 
— Major  Fraser  s  Manuscript,  edit,  by  Fergusson,  ii.  119;  \j\\vt's  Letters,  i.  66. 

^  Journey  through  Scotland,  1729,  p.  194. 


36       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

an  ignoble  trade,  Patrick  Ogilvie,  in  allusion  to  the  share  and 
profit  his  lordship  had  in  the  Union,  replied,  "  My  lord,  it  is 
better  to  sell  nowt  than  nations." 


V 

Bearing  in  mind  the  deep  impecuniosity  of  this  period, 
the  homely  habits  and  frugal  ways  of  the  gentlefolk,  we  cannot 
be  surprised  that  the  fine  arts  met  with  little  encouragement. 
The  architecture  outside  the  houses  was  of  the  plainest,  and 
they  wished  no  better ;  while  decoration  within  seemed  a  sad 
waste  of  money,  and  they  had  none  to  squander.  On  the 
room  walls  were  hanging  stiff  wooden  portraits  of  the  heads 
of  the  family,  with  no  particular  expression,  and  with  par- 
ticularly poor  skill.  That  Art  may  grow  it  is  necessary  that 
there  should  be  taste ;  that  an  artist  may  live  it  is  necessary 
that  there  be  patrons ;  but  in  order  that  there  be  patrons  it  is 
further  necessary  that  there  should  be  money.  Unfortunately, 
Scotland  lacked  all  these  requisites — money,  taste,  and  patrons. 
Since  that  one  true  Scots  artist,  George  Jamesone  of  Aberdeen, 
died  in  1644,  there  was  hardly  one  existing  north  of  the 
Tweed ;  and  the  "  Scottish  Vandyke,"  trained  in  the  studio  of 
Eubens,  had  been  content  to  execute  brilliant  portraits  of  his 
noble  employers  at  the  modest  rate  of  "  twenty-three  shillings 
sterling,  colour  and  claith  included " ;  or  if  he  supplied  the 
frame  or  "  muller,"  at  the  charge  of  "  thirty -four  shillings 
sterling,"  which  made  the  value  of  the  artist's  work  only  twice 
the  cost  of  the  carpenter's  frame.  What  more  vivid  evidence 
of  the  artistic  destitution  of  the  country  could  be  found  than 
in  the  long  gallery  at  Holyrood,  with  its  rows  of  well-varnished 
effigies  of  crowned  heads  of  Scotland,  beginning  with  Fergus  I., 
350  B.C.,  all  presenting  a  suspicious  similarity  of  nasal  feature 
as  striking  as  the  hereditary  "  Austrian  lip "  of  the  House  of 
Hapsburg  ?  For  such  a  national  work  no  native  artist  could  be 
found,  and  in  1684  the  Duke  of  York  engaged  the  Dutchman 
Jacob  de  "Witt  for  the  not  extravagant  sum  of  £250  to  paint  a 
hundred  and  fifty  royal  effigies  within  two  years,  which  was  duly 
accomplished  with  a  skill  proportionate  to  the  price  of  the  job. 

At   the   beginning   of  the  eighteenth  century  one   artist 


COUNTRY  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  yj 

was  enough  to  satisfy  the  artistic  cravings  of  the  country, 
and  even  he  was  a  foreigner.  Induced  by  the  promise  of 
customers  to  venture  from  London,  the  Spaniard,  Juan  Bautista 
Medina,  had  come  to  the  unknown  north,  bringing  with  him 
in  a  smack  to  Leith  an  ample  supply  of  canvasses  containing 
"  bodies  and  postures,"  male  and  female,  ready  painted,  to 
which  the  heads  of  his  future  clients  were  to  be  affixed.  For 
twenty  years  this  "  Kneller  of  the  north,"  Sir  John  Medina — 
for  he  had  been  knighted  by  the  Duke  of  Queensberry  before 
the  Union  of  1707 — was  engaged,  till  his  death  in  1710, 
making  likenesses  of  all  who  cared  or  could  afford  to  have 
them  painted:  now  busy  in  his  ill -lighted  room  in  an 
Edinburgh  flat,  immortalising  the  features  of  the  nobility 
and  gentry,  and  of  the  merchants,  with  their  wives ;  now 
travelling  painfully  along  the  deplorable  bridle-paths  to  almost 
inaccessible  country  mansions,  with  his  man  behind  him  in 
charge  of  canvasses  and  colours  and  frames.  The  knight  was 
ready — for  he  was  a  capable  artist,  as  his  works  prove — to 
copy  skilfully  the  visages  of  the  living,  or  to  limn  imaginary 
likenesses  of  defunct  ancestors  to  please  the  family  vanity, 
and  cover  the  walls  of  his  customers,  adding  the  required 
countenances  to  the  already  painted  human  trunks  which  he 
had  in  stock,  at  £10  a  piece,  or  £3  for  a  copy.  He  was 
willing  to  accommodate  his  subjects  with  Eoman  armour,  or 
laced  high  ruffs  and  farthingales,  or  contemporary  perukes  and 
embroidered  coats,  to  suit  their  taste  and  their  period.  There 
was  no  demand  for  any  other  sort  of  picture.  Classic  themes 
no  laird  would  look  at ;  mythological  subjects  none  could 
understand  ;  besides,  propriety  would  be  shocked  with  anything 
nude,  and  orthodoxy  horrified  at  anything  pagan.  Portraits, 
and  portraits  alone,  of  the  dead  or  living  could  attract  a 
customer.  Jacobites,  too,  across  the  water  and  at  home,  were 
anxious  to  have  portraits  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  and  by 
their  commissions  kept  some  poor  men  busy.  From  the  brush  of 
John  Medina,  the  shiftless  son  of  the  knight,  in  lucid  intervals 
of  sobriety,  and  from  Alexander,  the  descendant  of  the  illus- 
trious Jamesone,  came,  besides  likenesses  of  nobles  and  gentle- 
men, many  representations  of  Queen  Mary,^  which  descendants 

^  Burton's  Life  of  Hume.  i.  234. 


38       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  Y 

of  the  purchasers  came  in  time  to  treasure  in  the  vain 
imagination  that  they  were  veritable  original  copies  from  life 
of  the  unfortunate  monarch,  whose  head  was  executed  as 
ruthlessly  on  canvas  as  she  herself  had  been  executed  at 
Fotheringay. 

But  all  this  work  so  poorly  paid  could  not  keep  more 
than  two  or  three  men  with  average  appetites,  and  whenever  a 
man  discovered  any  talent  in  himself,  he  fled  the  impoverished 
country  to  cities  where  money  was  less  scarce  and  people  were 
more  liberal.  There  was  only  one  when  Sir  John  Medina  died. 
William  Aikman  had  been  at  his  easel  since  1712,  in  his 
High  Street  close,  a  laird  by  rank,  a  good  painter  by  craft, 
a  clubbable  man,  and  a  man  of  fashion  and  pleasantry,  as  one 
sees  in  his  portrait,  with  affable  well-bred  visage  under  his 
flowing  Wycherley  wig.  To  his  door  not  a  few  customers 
came  up  the  steep  scale  staircase,  and  his  hand  was  engaged 
depicting  features  of  lords  and  lairds  and  ladies,  with  their 
silks  and  satins,  Flanders  lace,  periwigs  and  powder,  whose 
portraits  are  to-day  cherished  ancestral  heirlooms  in  many  an 
old  mansion.  But  ten  years  were  enough  to  weary  Aikman 
of  a  poor  business  and  customers  that  grudged  to  be  im- 
mortalised at  £10  for  a  painted  yard  of  canvas,  "  forbye  a 
frame "  ;  and  he  quitted  Edinburgh  amid  valedictory  regrets, 
suppers,  and  poetical  epistles  from  Allan  Iiamsay  and  others, 
and  went  to  London  to  get  society  and  fortune,  to  rival  the 
great  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller,  till  in  1731  he  died,  and  was 
interred  in  Greyfriars'  Churchyard — for  Scotland  was  good 
enough  to  be  buried  in  but  not  good  enough  to  live  in. 
Behind  him  in  Edinburgh  he  had  left  two  or  three  practitioners 
whose  names  are  shadows  to-day,  most  of  whose  works,  after 
hanging  on  dining-room  walls,  retreated  to  bedrooms,  from 
bedrooms  to  garrets,  and  finally,  at  "  displenishing  sales "  of 
country  seats,  found  themselves  in  retired  and  dusty  nooks  of 
old  picture  shops.^ 

Such  was  the  condition  of  art  in  the  first  half  of  the 
century.     Landscapes  had  no  interest  in  an  age  which   had 

'  Rose  of  Kili-avock  furnishes  his  portrait-gallery  cheaiily  in  1727:  "Cash 
paid  to  Mr.  Watt  for  Lady  Kilraick's  picture,  £l:10s. " — Hoses  of  Kilravock, 
p.  404. 


COUNTRY^  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  39 

no  eye  for  the  picturesque,  planted  no  trees,  and  admired 
no  scenery.  For  that  branch  of  the  business  there  was  no 
demand  whatever,  unless  for  "  house  decoration,"  which  was 
a  fashion  then  affected  by  persons  of  quality.  "  Landskips 
with  figures "  were  inserted  at  that  period  in  the  panels  of 
doors,  on  wainscots  and  window-shutters,  by  house  painters ; 
and  near  Allan  Eamsay's  shop  in  the  High  Street  in  a  flat 
lived  "  old  Norrie,"  whose  skill  and  trade  were  so  considerable 
in  ornamenting  town  residences  of  the  richer  classes  with 
these  panel  designs  that  he  has  been  called  the  first  of  the 
Scots  landscape  school  of  painting.  While,  owing  to  the  par- 
simonious treatment  of  art,  there  were  few  native  painters  at 
work,  gentlemen  employed  occasionally  travelling  foreigners,  who 
came  north,  executed  a  few  portraits,  and  then  gladly  returned 
to  their  more  genial  climates.^ 


VI 

Nothing  tended  to  preserve  intact  the  traditional  ways  and 
the  provincial  and  stay-at-home  habits  of  the  gentry  so  much 
as  the  difficulty  of  leaving  home,  and  the  wretched  roads  that 
hindered  communication  with  towns,  and  therefore  kept  them 
from  having  intercourse  with  the  world.  The  highways  were 
tracks  of  mire  in  wet  weather  and  marshes  in  winter,  till  the 
frost  had  made  them  sheets  of  ice,  covered  with  drifted  snow; 
when  rain  fell  the  flat  ground  became  lakes  with  islands 
of  stone,  and  the  declivities  became  cataracts.  Even  towns 
were  often  connected  only  by  pack-roads,  on  which  horses 
stumbled  perilously  along,  and  carriages  could  not  pass  at 
all,^  over  unenclosed  land  and  moorland,  where,  after  rain, 
it  was  difficult  to  trace  any  beaten  track.  When  snow  set 
in,   each   country   house  was   blockaded ;    there   was   nothing 

^  Brydall's  Hist,  of  Art  in  Scotland;  Stirling-Maxwell's  Annals  of  Artists 
in  Spai7i,  vol.  iii.  ;  Walpole's  Anecdotes  of  Painting,  1862,  vol.  ii.  ;  Wilson's 
Memorials  of  Edinburgh  ;  Cunningham's  British  Painters. 

2  When  early  in  the  century  Hugh,  Earl  of  London,  was  conveyed  as  a  child 
to  Edinburgh,  he  was  jiut  in  a  pannier  slung  across  the  back  of  a  horse,  accom- 
]>ani(Hl  by  a  servant  riding  on  another  horse.  His  journey  occupied  the  most  of 
a  week. — Tytler  and  Watson's  Songstresses  of  Scot.  i.  286. 


40       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 

to  look  on  but  the  bleak,  white,  treeless  waste.  Then  it  was 
that  the  isolated  household  appreciated  the  advantage  of 
having  within  doors  the  great  store  of  salted  meat,  the  girnals 
full  of  grain  to  make  their  "  groats "  and  "  knoekit  bear," 
their  brew-house  to  supply  the  ale.  "When  communication 
was  so  hard,  and  roads  were  miserable,  coaches  were  of  little 
service,  and  were  the  luxury  only  of  the  few  who  were  rich. 
In  1720  there  were  no  chariots  or  chaises  to  be  found  north 
of  the  Tay;  and  when  the  first  chaise  was  seen  in  1725  in 
Inverness  drawn  by  its  six  horses,  the  excitement  created  was 
immense.  As  it  rumbled  along  the  Highlanders  rushed  from 
their  huts,  and  unbonneted  with  abject  reverence  before  the 
coachman,  whom  they  took  for  the  principal  personage  on  the 
equipage.^ 

In  spite  of  Marshal  Wade's  great  work  in  making  260 
miles  of  roads,  in  many  districts  it  was  still  a  dangerous 
expedition  if  the  mist  fell  in  the  North — when  the  postilion 
went  by  tracks  he  could  not  see,  in  a  region  he  did  not  know, 
in  search  of  a  wright  or  smith  he  could  not  find,  to  mend  a 
vehicle  shaken  to  pieces  by  ruts,  and  with  axle-tree  broken 
by  boulders. 

Such  a  disastrous  journey  Simon,  Lord  Lovat,  vividly  de- 
scribes in  1740,  having  set  forth  with  his  two  daughters  from 
Inverness  to  Edinburgh.  Before  starting,  two  or  three  days 
had  been  spent  in  repairing  his  carriage,  and  for  precaution 
he  brought  his  wheelwright  as  far  as  Aviemore,  when  he  was 
assured  that  the  chariot  was  safe  enough  to  carry  to  London. 
"  But  I  was  not  eight  miles  from  the  place  when  on  the  plain 
road  the  axle-tree  of  the  hind  wheels  broke  in  two,  so  that 
my  two  girls  were  forced  to  go  on  bare  horses  behind  the 
footmen,  and  I  was  obliged  to  ride  myself  though  I  was  very 
tender.  I  came  with  that  equipage  to  Euthven  late  at  night, 
and  my  chariot  was  pulled  there  by  force  of  men,  where  I  got 
an  English  wheelwright  and  a  smith,  who  wrought  two  days 
mending  my  chariot  .  .  .  and  I  was  not  gone  four  miles  from 
Euthven  when  it  broke  again,  so  tliat  I  was  in  a  miserable 
condition  till  I  came  to  Dalnakeardach."  Again  it  was  mended, 
and  he  got  to  Castle  Drummond,  where  he  was  storm-stayed 

^  Spalding  Miscellany,  i.  100  ;  Burt's  Letters,  i.  7. 


CO UNTR  V  SOCIETY  AND  CO  UNTR  V  LIFE  4 1 

"  by  the  most  tempestuous  weather  of  wind  and  rain  I  ever 
remember."  Setting  forth,  "  I  was  not  three  miles  gone  from 
Castle  Drummond  when  the  axle-tree  of  my  fore  wheels  broke 
in  two  in  the  midst  of  the  hill  betwixt  Drummond  and  the 
bridge  of  Erdoch,  and  we  were  forced  to  sit  in  the  hill  with 
a  boisterous  day  till  Chamberlain  Drummond  was  so  kind  as 
to  go  down  the  strath  and  bring  wrights,  carts,  and  smiths 
to  our  assistance,  who  dragged  us  to  the  plain,  where  we  were 
forced  to  stay  five  or  six  hours  till  there  was  a  new  axle-tree 
made,  so  that  it  was  dark  night  before  we  came  to  Dumblain, 
which  is  but  eight  miles  from  Castle  Drummond,  all  much 
fatigued."  ^  At  last  they  reach  Edinburgh  in  safety,  having 
taken  eleven  days  for  the  journey.  Such  misadventures  were 
apt  to  occur  when  chariots  were  rattled  to  bits  on  the 
execrable  roads.  Even  when  travelling  on  horseback  the  laird 
of  Thunderton  took  five  or  six  days  to  come  from  Morayshire 
to  Edinburgh,  about  150  miles ; "  and  travelling  on  horseback 
was  the  only  way  on  which  journeys  could  in  many  frequented 
districts  be  made.  If,  however,  a  lady  was  old  or  delicate  she 
might  be  conveyed  in  a  sedan-chair,  three  porters  being 
employed,  one  to  take  the  place  of  the  porter  who  was  first 
exhausted.^  Slowly  and  infrequently  coaches  passed  along 
the  most  used  thoroughfare.  To  perform  the  journey  of  six- 
teen miles  between  Edinburgh  and  Haddington  *  at  the  middle 
of  the  century  occupied  a  whole  winter's  day  for  a  coach  with 
four  horses.  Not  till  1749  did  a  stage-coach  besjin  to  run 
between  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow.^  Twice  a  week  it  started, 
each  passenger  paying  9s.  6d.  and  allowed  one  stone  of  luggage, 
and  it  took  twelve  hours  to  accomplish  the  journey  of  forty- 
six  miles ;  nor  was  this  speed  exceeded  till  thirty  years  later. 
But  even  this  was  an  enormous  improvement  in  rapidity  and 
comfort  on  previous  days,  when  a  coach  spent  a  day  and  a 
half  on  the  road.  The  state  of  the  highways  made  the 
transit  of  carts  well-nigh  impossible  in  most  parts  of  the  year ; 

1  Spalding  Miscellany,  i.  5.  ^  Dunbar's  Social  Life,  i.  35. 

^  Chambers'  Thrciplands  of  Fingask,  p.  36. 

*  Robertson's  Rural  Recoil eetimis. 

'  Scots  Magazine,  1749,  p.  253;  Glasgow  Past  awl  rrcsrnt,  ii.  436.  In  1749 
a  caravan  was  started  to  go  between  Edinburgli  and  (Jlasgow,  going  and  return- 
ing twice  a  week,  each  person  to  pay  5s.  fare. — Scots  Magazine,  1749,  p.  459. 


42       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

and  it  was  not  till  the  middle  of  the  century  that  carriers 
began  to  ply  regularly  from  town  to  town  with  their  wares  and 
their  parcels.  Before  then  many  tracts  of  the  lowlands,  with 
big  villages  and  considerable  populations,  were  almost  without 
intercommunication,  save  l)y  the  cadgers,  who  sat  on  horse- 
back with  creels  on  each  side  carrying  goods  and  letters. 
Even  about  1770  the  carrier  took  a  fortnio;ht  to  go  to  and 
from  Selkirk  and  Edinburgh,  conveying  a  load  six  hundred- 
weight at  a  time,  and  this  journey  he  could  never  accomplish 
in  winter,  and  in  the  dry  weather  he  drove  along  the  channels 
of  the  Gala  water,  as  being  more  traversable  than  the  main 
road.^ 

As  for  travelling  to  far-off  London,  the  obstacles  were  too, 
great  for  poor  persons,  too  perilous  for  nervous  persons,  to 
undertake  the  expedition.  It  was  expensive,  it  was  tedious, 
it  was  adventurous.  To  relieve  the  weariness  of  the  long 
journey,  Sir  Eichard  Steele  when  he  came  to  Scotland  brought 
his  French  master  to  teach  him  the  language  of  Paris  on  the 
way;  and  that  it  was  a  costly  as  well  as  a  weary  process  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  this  luxurious  knight  and  his  brother 
commissioners  (of  inquiry  on  forfeited  estates)  in  1717  were 
allowed  £50  each  for  travelling  expenses  to  Edinburgh — each 
clerk  having  the  more  modest  allowance  of  £12.^  In  fact,  to 
travel  that  road,  spending  fourteen  days  on  the  way,  in  a 
"  closs  bodyed  carriage  and  sex  horses,"  cost  two  gentlemen  in 
1725  the  sum  of  "  thretty  pounds  Stirling."  ^  Not  unattended 
with  danger,  preparations  for  defence  against  English  highway- 
men were  necessary.  Mrs.  Calderwood  of  Polton  records 
how   in    1756    she   set   off   for   the   metropolis   in   her   own 

^  Robertson's  Rural  Recollections,  p.  40. 

-  Aitken's  Life  of  Steele,  ii.  151  ;  Murray's  Neio  York  Buildings  Company, 
p.  36. 

^  Here  is  a  contract  for  travelling  in  1725:  "London,  May  15.  Received 
from  Col.  W.  Grant  and  Patrick  Duff,  Esq.,  sex  guinies  of  earnest  for  a  good 
closs  bodyed  coach  and  sex  horses  to  sett  out  for  Edinburgh  from  London  on 
Monday  17th  May,  to  travel  sex  dayes  to  York  to  rest  their  two  dayes  and  travel 
two  dayes  and  a  half  to  Newcastle,  and  three  or  four  days  from  that  to  Edinburgh 
as  the  roads  will  allow,  and  to  make  for  the  said  coach  thretty  pounds  Stirling. 
The  half  to  hand,  and  the  other  in  Edinburgh,  and  the  earnest  to  be  forfeited  if 
the  gentlemen  do  not  keep  punctuality  (signed  Thos.  Green)." — Scottish  Antiquary, 
ii.  182. 


CO UNTR  Y  SOCIE TV  A i\D  CO UNTR  V  LIFE  43 

post-chaise,  attended  by  her  faithful  man-servant  on  horse- 
back, who  had  pistols  in  his  holsters,  and  a  stout  broadsword 
by  his  side.  The  lady  had  provided  herself  with  a  case  of 
pistols  to  use  if  attacked  on  the  lonely  moorland  roads.^ 
Persons  who  needed  to  hire  a  chaise  had  the  utmost  difficulty 
in  procuring  a  conveyance,  even  if  they  could  afford  it. 
Occasional  chances  occurred  of  getting  from  Edinburgh  to 
London  by  return  coaches  drawn  by  six  horses,  wliich  were 
duly  advertised  as  ready  to  receive  passengers.^  Even  in 
1758  there  were  no  four-wheeled  chaises  to  be  got  for  hire 
till  arriving  at  Durham,  for  these  conveyances  were  still  in 
their  infancy,  and  the  two  -  wheeled  carriages  called  "  the 
Italian,"  lacerating  to  the  frame,  had  been  given  up  as  instru- 
ments of  torture.^ 

Scots  members  of  Parliament  could  not  usually  afford  to 
drive  to  Westminster,  for  the  cost  would  have  hopelessly 
burdened  their  sorely  wadsetted  lands ;  they  therefore  rode 
their  own  horses.  Even  John  Duke  of  Argyll  is  said  to  have 
strapped  the  skirts  of  his  coat  round  his  waist  and  dashed  on 
horseback  through  the  worst  storms  of  winter  on  his  south- 
ward way.  "  Jupiter "  Carlyle  describes  how  he  and  other 
ministers  convoyed  as  far  as  Wooler  John  Home,  setting 
off  with  the  play  of  Douglas  in  one  of  his  borrowed 
leather  saddle-bags,  and  a  "  clean  shirt  and  night-cap "  in 
the  other,  on  a  snowy  morning  of  February  1755.^  With 
the  costliness  of  travelling  to  face,  many  Scotsmen  who  had 
no  money  to  waste  found  it  the  best  plan  to  buy  cheaply  a 
horse  to  ride  and  then  to  sell  it — at  a  profit  if  they  could — 
on  reaching  their  destination.  It  was  in  this  manner  that 
William  Murray  (afterwards  Lord  Mansfield)  started  forth  in 
I7l7,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  on  his  eventful  journey  to  London, 
on   his  little   horse,  with    the    paternal   instructions   of  Lord 

^  Mrs.  Calderwood's  Letters  and  Journals. 

-  Chambers'  Domestic  Annals,  iii.  408. 

^  Carlyle's  Axdobiography,  p.  331  ;  Wright's  Life  of  General  Wolfe,  p.  263. 
"  I  must  tell  you  that  I  was  beat  to  pieces  in  the  new  post-chaises  or  machines 
that  are  purposely  constructed  to  torture  the  unhappy  creatures  that  are  ])laced 
in  them.  I  was  forced  at  last  to  have  recourse  to  post-horses."  So  in  1747  JIajor 
Wolfe  describes  his  experiences  of  travelling  between  Scotland  and  England. 

•*  Carlyle's  Autohiograj)hy ;  Omond's  Lord  Advocates  of  Scotland,  i.  327. 


44       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 

Stormont  to  sell  his  pony  on  his  arrival  to  pay  his  expenses.^ 
Dr.  Skene  of  Aberdeen  in  1753  bought  a  mare  for  eight 
guineas,  and  after  he  had  been  eighteen  days  on  the  road  (his 
expenses  amounting  to  four  guineas)  he  disposed  of  his  animal 
for  the  price  he  had  paid  for  it.^  When  even  these  means 
were  beyond  the  reach  of  the  poor  traveller's  purse  he  might 
journey,  as  Tobias  Smollett  did  in  1739,  partly  by  waggon, 
partly  on  the  pack-horses  he  overtook  on  the  road,  and  the  rest 
of  the  way  on  foot.^  Till  Grantham  was  reached,  110  miles 
from  London,  one  found  no  turnpike  road,  coach  and  horse 
going  by  a  narrow  causeway,  with  soft  unmade  earth  on  either 
side,  and  constantly  forced  to  stop  to  allow  the  long  strings  of 
thirty  or  forty  pack-horses  that  blocked  the  way  to  squeeze, 
by,  as  they  carried  their  merchandise  to  the  towns.^  But  for 
those  who  could  afford  it,  there  was  the  one  stage-coach  which 
up  to  1754  started  from  the  Grassmarket  once  a  month, 
making  in  twelve  or  sixteen  days  the  passage  to  London, 
which  was  accompanied  by  such  perils,  real  or  imaginary,  that 
timid  passengers  made  their  wills  before  setting  forth.^  At 
that  time,  however,  a  private  chaise  sometimes  would  traverse 
the  route  at  the  rapid  rate  of  only  six  days. 

In  consequence  of  the  small  number  of  passengers  on  the 
roads  in  those  days  of  bad  travelling,  the  inns  in  Scotland 
were  miserable  in  the  extreme.  In  country  towns  they  were 
mean  hovels,  with  dirty  rooms,  dirty  food,  and  dirty  attendants.^ 
The  Englishman,  as  he  saw  the  servants  without  shoes  or 
stockings,  as  he  looked  at  the  greasy  tables  without  a  cover, 
and  saw  the  butter  thick  with  cow  -  hairs,  the  coarse  meal 
served  without  a  knife  and  fork,  so  that  he  had  to  use  his 
fingers   or   a   clasp  -  knife,  the  one  glass   or  tin  can  handed 

^  Campbell's  Lives  of  the  Chief -Just  ices,  1874,  iii.  170. 

-  Smiles'  Lives  of  the  Engineers,  iii.  25. 

^  Smollett's  Roderick  Randoin,  chap.  viii. 

*  New  Stat.  AccL  Scotlaml  (Lanark),  p.  206. 

^  Creech's  Fugitive  Pieces,  i>.  63.  There  appeared  the  following  advertisement 
in  Edinburgh  Courant,  July  1,  1754  :  "The  Edinburgh  stage-coach  for  the  better 
accommodation  of  passengers  will  be  altered  to  a  neat  genteel  two-end  glass 
machine  hung  on  steel  springs,  exceeding  light  and  easy  to  go  in  10  days  in 
summer  and  12  in  winter  on  every  alternate  Tuesday." — Grant's  Old  ami  New 
Edinburgh,  ii.  15. 

^  Burt's  Letters,  i.  13  ;  Gentleman's  Maga-jiJie,  1766. 


CO UNTR  V  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR V  LIFE  45 

round  the  company  from  mouth  to  mouth,  his  gorge  rose. 
The  contrast  with  the  English  hostelries  was  terrible — there 
everything  was  charming  for  its  cleanliness,  comfort,  cosiness, 
and  cooking.  It  was  the  wearied  traveller's  haven  of  rest 
after  long  dusty  stages,  associated  with  ease  and  civility,  good 
drink,  good  fare,  good  beds,  and  good  company,  beside  the 
genial  parlour  fire.  But  in  Scotland  the  hostelries  even  in 
large  towns  afforded  more  entertainment  for  beast  than  for  man. 
They  were  more  fit  for  stabling  than  for  lodging.^  Even 
when  Captain  Topham  arrived  in  Edinburgh  in  1776,  and 
was  recommended  to  one  of  the  best  inns  in  the  city,  he  was 
driven  out  of  it  by  the  dirt  and  discomfort,  by  the  rooms  filled 
with  carters  and  drovers,  the  filthy  bedrooms,  the  smells  and 
sights,  and  he  sought  refuge  in  a  lodging  in  a  fourth  or  fifth  flat, 
slightly  less  unpleasant,  and  a  vast  deal  dearer.  It  would  there- 
fore seem  that  the  condition  of  these  houses  had  little  improved 
since  the  beginning  of  the  century.  "With  eloquent  emotion 
Dr.  Johnson  was  wont  to  speak  of  the  delightful  comforts  of 
an  English  tavern ;  it  is  not  in  similar  strains  he  could  speak 
of  Scottish  inns.  Fortunately  for  him,  when  in  1773  the 
lexicographer  came  north,  he  was  ensconced,  till  Boswell  took 
him  to  James's  Court,  in  the  "  "VVliite  Horse  "  in  Edinburgh, 
which,  with  all  its  discomforts,  was  fairly  clean,  and  in 
"  Saracen's  Head  "  in  Glasgow,  which,  when  built  twenty  years 
before,  was  the  very  first  inn  in  the  west  that  ever  gave  decent 
accommodation.^  The  redeeming  feature  of  these  places  was 
their  cheapness — the  tavern  ordinary  was  only  4d.,and  the  claret 
— the  only  thing  Englishmen  could  praise — was  good  and  cheap, 
costing  only  Is.  a  mutchkin  in  the  early  years  of  the  century.* 

1  Journey  to  North  of  England  and  Scotlaml  in  1704,  privately  printed  181S  ; 
Burt's  Letters,  i.  13,  143  ;  Macky's  Journey  through  Scotland,  1729  ;  Humphrey 
Clinker;  Gentleman's  May.  May  1766;  Letters  from  Edinhurgli,  1776.  The 
hostelries  in  Edinburgh  were  meant  rather  for  putting  \\\^  horses  than  the 
travellers,  who  were  expected  to  seek  lodgings  elsewhere.  In  St.  Mary's  "Wynd 
an  inn  had  stabling  for  100  horses,  and  a  shed  for  20  carriages. 

-  Strang's  Clubs  of  Glasgow,  p.  131. 

^  Foulis  of  Ravelston  enters  in  his  Accompt  Books:  "To  dinner  with  the 
President  and  oyr  [other]  lords  of  Session  £1 :  7s.  Scots  "  (p.  351).  Tavern  Bill  of 
Dunbar  of  Thunderton  in  1700:  "Item  for  20  dayes  dyet  to  yourself  and 
servant  £07.08.00." — Dunbar's  Social  Life,  p.  39.  Carlyle  pays  3s.  6d,  for  four 
days*  board  and  lodging  at  an  inn. — Carlyle's  Autobiography,  p.  98. 


46       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Communication  by  letter  in  the  first  half  of  the  century 
was  as  slow  and  uncertain  as  by  person,  and  correspondence 
was  rare  between  town  and  country  people.  The  marvels  of 
cacography  in  the  old  epistles  amply  testify  that  their  writers 
wrote  with  difficulty  and  spelt  by  chance.^  After  the  Union 
of  1707  the  post  was  reformed  in  Scotland.  The  whole 
establishment  cost  only  £1000  yearly;  the  general  post- 
master stationed  in  Edinburgh  having  a  salary  of  £200,  and, 
employing  an  accountant  and  two  clerks,  he  managed  easily 
the  entire  postal  business.  For  several  years  one  letter-carrier 
was  found  sufficient  to  distribute  all  the  letters  in  Edinburgh, 
though  in  later  years  the  staff  was  increased  to  three.  As 
the  closes  were  labyrinthine,  the  flats  high,  the  houses  un- 
numbered, the  addresses  of  the  vaguest,  it  is  evident  that  the 
correspondence  for  a  population  of  30,000  must  have  been 
extremely  limited.^  The  London  mail-bag  in  the  early  part 
of  the  century  was  sometimes  found  to  contain  only  one 
letter,  and  this  even  occurred  once  so  late  as  1746.  Six  days 
were  spent  by  post-boys  on  the  road  to  London,^  when  they 
carried  their  small  consignment  in  a  portmanteau  behind 
them,  and  it  sometimes  occurred  that  in  crossing  a  river  the 
post-boy,  horse,  and  bags  disappeared  and  were  never  seen  again  ; 
and  in  the  confusion  of  an  inn  refreshment,  it  happened  that 
the  letters  were  returned.^     All  letters  were  at  first  conveyed 

^  Joyce's  Hist,  of  Post  Office  ;  Lang's  Hist,  of  Post  Office  in  Scotland,  ' '  I  was 
informed  60  years  ago  {i.e.  1760)  by  officials  who  had  been  employed  in  the  post- 
office  that  Provost  Alexander,  the  only  banker  at  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
had  often  received  a  solitary  letter  by  the  London  mail." — Somerville's  Own  Life, 
p.  536.     Chambers'  Minor  Antiquities  of  Edin.  p.  204. 

2  Specimens  of  addresses  of  letters  in  1702:  "  flbr  Mr.  Arch.  Dumbar  of 
Thunderstown  to  be  left  at  Captain  Dumbar's  writing  chamber  at  the  Iron  Revell 
third  storie  below  the  cross  north  end  of  the  closs  at  Edinburgh  "  ;  "  ffor  Captain 
Phillip  Anstruther  of  New  Grange  atte  his  lodgeing  a  litle  above  the  fountain 
well  south  side  of  the  street  Edenbourgh." — Dunbar's  Social  Life,  p.  34.  In  1781 
there  were  six  letter-carriers  in  Edinburgh. — Lang's  Hist. 

^  Strange  to  say,  the  post  established  in  1635  took  half  the  time  performing 
the  journey  between  London  and  Edinburgh,  doing  it  in  three  days. — Arnot's 
Hist,  of  Edin.  p.  537.  In  1790  letters  conveyed  between  these  two  cities  in  four 
days. — Ibid.  p.  536. 

*  In  1725  and  in  1733,  1734,  the  post-boy  was  drowned  or  fell  off  his  horse 
in  the  river;  in  1720,  1728,  the  mail-bag  was  returned  with  same  letters. — 
■Chambers'  Annals,  iii.  513. 


COUNTRY  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  47 

to  towns  by  foot-runners — who  never  ran — carrying  them 
as  far  as  Thurso  and  Inverness.  They  set  out  twice  a  week 
to  Glasgow,  leaving  on  Tuesday  and  Thursday  at  twelve  o'clock 
at  night  and  arriving  on  the  evening  of  the  next  day ;  but 
by  I7l7  there  was  begun  a  horse-post,  which  left  at  eight  at 
night  and  arrived  at  six  next  morning — its  appearance  in  Tron- 
gate  being  announced  to  the  citizens  by  the  firing  of  a  gun. 
Some  years  later,  to  the  more  distant  towns,  post-boys  went  on 
horseback  instead  of  on  foot  as  of  old.  Thrice  a  week  they 
set  forth  on  their  sorry  nags  to  the  largest  towns,  and  twice 
a  week  to  the  smaller,  while  those  letter-carriers  who  still 
went  on  foot  went  only  once  a  week  to  their  several  places. 
Slowly  the  post-boys  ambled  on,  stopping  two  nights  on  the 
road  from  Edinburgh  to  Aberdeen,  pausing  leisurely  to  refresh 
themselves  and  rest  their  horses ;  for  it  was  not  till  1750 
that  bags  were  carried  on  from  stage  to  stage  by  different 
postmen  and  by  fresh  relays  of  horses  to  the  far-out  offices. 
There  were  only  thirty-four  post-towns  for  some  time  in  all 
Scotland,^  and  the  difficulty  was  for  people  to  know  how  to 
get  letters  or  to  learn  that  there  were  letters  to  get.  The 
postman  dared  not  deliver  them  to  any  person  on  the  way, 
but  must  carry  them  to  the  terminal  post-office,  where  they 
might  remain  uncalled  for  in  dust  and  obscurity  till  chance 
discovered  their  existence  to  their  owners.  Cadgers  and 
carriers  could  bring  them  more  easily  and  more  safely,  and 
often  did  so,  though  in  violation  of  the  law,  which  forbade 
under  penalty  any  such  infringement  of  the  monopoly  of  the 
State.  When  this  slow  and  unsure  transmission  of  news 
prevailed  it  was  inevitable  that  tidings  of  pubhc  events 
penetrated  fitfully  to  remoter  districts."  Ministers  supplicated 
for  the  king's  long  life  weeks  after  his  lamented  Majesty  had 

^  For  some  years  after  1707.  The  postmasters  of  Haddington  and  Cockburns- 
path  had  a  salary  of  £50,  being  on  the  main  line  to  England,  while  those  of 
Glasgow  and  Aberdeen  had  £25  each,  those  of  Dundee,  Montrose,  and  Inverness 
£15,  and  those  of  Ayr  and  Dumfries  only  £12. — Joyce's  Hist,  of  Post  Office.  In 
1781  there  were  140  post-offices,  and  in  1791,  164. — Lang's  Hist,  of  Post  Office  in 
Scotland.  Revenue  of  Post-Oftice  in  Scotland  in  1707  was  £1194  ;  in  1754, 
£8927  ;  in  1776,  £31,000.— Arnot's  Hist.  p.  541. 

-  Before  1756  there  was  no  post-office  in  the  Hebrides,  and  not  one  in  all 
the  West  Highlands  beyond  the  Chain. — Walker's  Econ.  Hist,  of  Heir  ides, 
ii.  336. 


48       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

been  buried ;  and  in  the  long  specific  prayers  "  many  a 
time,"  it  was  said  by  a  long-sufferer,  "  I  thanked  God  for 
giving  us  a  glorious  victory  when  we  had  been  shamefully 
beaten,  for  inspiring  courage  in  the  troops  when  they  had  run 
away ;  for  success  granted  to  our  arms  in  battles  that  were 
never  fought,  for  deliverance  from  plots  that  were  never  formed." 
Few  would  have  the  charming  frankness  of  the  Highland 
minister  of  Alness,  who,  finding  that  his  information  had  been 
erroneous,  said  from  the  pulpit,  "  My  brethren,  it  was  a'  lees  I 
teirt  ye  last  Sabbath."  ^ 

Owing  to  the  infrequency  of  travelling,  there  was  at  least 
one  class  of  criminals  from  which  Scotland  was  exempt,  and  that 
was  of  highwaymen.  That  fraternity,  so  large  and  prosperous- 
beyond  the  border,  was  here  unknown  ;  they  would  have  grown 
weary  of  waiting  for  passengers  to  waylay,  and  died  of  poverty 
from  finding  so  little  to  plunder  from  their  persons. 


VII 

Amid  the  resources  of  civilisation,  one  of  the  least  trust- 
worthy, though  the  most  self-confident,  was  that  of  medicine. 
The  gross  empiricism  of  its  practitioners,  the  lack  of  scientific 
knowledge,  the  use  of  preposterous  methods,  the  ignorance  of 
all  rational  remedies,  was  as  marked  as  in  the  middle  ages.^ 
The  sciences  of  physic  and  surgery  were  in  their  infancy,  and 
till    1726    in    Edinburgh   and   1740    in    Glasgow   there    was 

^  Letters  from  a  Blacksmith,  etc.,  1754  ;  Memoirs  of  a  Highland  Lady  (Miss 
Grant  of  Rothiemurchus),  p.  192. 

2  The  fees  were  not  exorbitant.  Charges  of  Kenneth  Mackenzie,  "Chjn~ 
Aporie"  in  Elgin,  1719-20,  to  the  laird  of  Thunderton :  "Cephalick  powder, 
2s.  Scots  ;  2  oz.  centaury,  4s.  ;  vomitory,  10s.  ;  ane  pott  of  ane  elecuary,  14s.  ; 
gargarism,  £l:16s." — Dunbar's  Social  Life,  i.  21.  Fees  charged  in  1721  by  a 
practitioner  of  chyme  and  medicine  against  patients  who  refused  to  pay:  "1, 
to  J.  W. ,  six  pounds  Scots  as  being  for  severall  tymes  letting  blood  of  his  wyffe 
and  giving  phisick  to  her,  and  my  paines  in  going  3  severall  tymes  to  his  house 
being  4  miles  distant  frae  myne.  2,  W,  N. ,  a  guinie  as  being  a  moderate  and 
reasonable  satisfaction  for  my  paines  and  expenses  in  making  up  plaisters  and 
other  medicaments  to  performing  a  cure  upon  his  nose  when  the  same  was  cut  off 
by  J.  Bartholemew  as  alledged — deducting  2  shills.  sterg.  paid.  3,  J.  H.,  eleven 
pounds  Scots  as  being  for  my  paines  in  being  severall  tymes  to  his  house  using 
drugs  and  severall  medicaments  to  him  when  he  was  under  a  consumption  and 
wherof  I  cured  him." — Hector's  Judicial  Records,  p.  102. 


CO UNTR Y  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR  Y  LIFE  49 

no  University  school  or  qualified  professor.  Those  men 
only  could  get  any  insight  into  their  profession  who  went 
abroad  to  study  at  Leyden  under  Boerhaave  or  in  Paris.  Others 
learned  their  art  in  the  sickroom  of  the  patient,  or  in  the  shops 
of  chirurgeons.  But  as  a  rule  the  art  of  healing  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  chirurgeon  -  apothecaries,  who  had  learned  the 
little  they  knew  when  serving  their  apprenticeship  to  un- 
educated country  surgeons,  who  acted  as  general  practitioners, 
and  whose  drugs  they  had  made  up  in  the  closets  where 
they  wielded  the  pestle.  It  is  true  that  their  fees  were 
small,  and  it  once  was  usual  for  a  doctor  to  get  the  gift  of 
a  hat  or  "  propynes  "  of  malt  or  meal  for  services ;  yet  there 
was  ample  need  for  all  the  skill  and  knowledge  of  the  profession 
in  those  days,  when  sanitation  was  unknown,  when  the  mansions 
of  the  greatest  were  without  the  most  rudimentary  and  essential 
conveniences  of  cleanliness,  when  there  were  epidemics  which 
passed  with  fatal  virulence  over  the  population,  when  ague 
arose  yearly  from  the  marshy  soil,  disabling  its  thousands,  when 
small-pox  ravaged  the  community,  and  fevers  came  through 
filth.  Ladies  were  troubled  with  the  "  vapours,"  and  it  must 
be  owned  that  neither  ladies  nor  gentlemen  were  free  from  the 
trouble  of  the  itch.^  When  sickness  broke  out  the  chirurgeon- 
apothecary  was  sent  for,  and  came  with  his  lancets,  boluses, 
confections,  and  electuaries  in  his  saddle-bags,  and  the  big  sand- 
glass in  his  capacious  skirt  pocket  to  count  the  patient's  pulse.^ 
The  inevitable  panacea  for  almost  every  disease,  according 
to  the  practice  of  the  age,  was,  of  course,  "  blood-letting " ; 
and  in  those  days  there  was  more  bloodshed  in  peace  than 
in  time  of  war.  Even  in  perfect  health  a  gentleman  thought 
that  he  could  not  preserve  his  constitution  unless  at  certain 
seasons  of  the  year  he  was  "  let  blood."  There  is  no  more 
frequent  charge  in  medical  bills  than  for  phlebotomising, 
and  there  is  one  item  which  seems  mysterious  in  old  house- 
hold account-books — "  to  drink  money  to  the  surgeon's  man  to 
take  away  the  pellets,"  the  "  pellets  "  being  the  little  leaden 

^  "  To  Miss  Helen  Crosbie,  cure  for  vajjours  and  itch,  £6  :  6s."  ;  "The  Sheritr 
of  Moray  for  itch,  £6  :9s.  Scots,"  are  items  in  a  doctor's  bills  at  the  end  of  the 
preceding  century. — Scot.  Society  of  Antiquaries,  iv.  181.  Other  items  are  for 
"scrofulous  chouks  "  (cheeks),  "liviters,"  and  "cockhecticks." 

^  Chambers'  I'raditions,  i.  105. 
VOL.  I  4 


50       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

compasses  used  for  two  or  three  days  to  prevent  undue  bleed- 
ing. Had  a  child  the  "  kink-hoast  "  (whooping-cough)  ?  Then 
five  leeches  must  be  put  behind  the  ear.  Had  he  the  head- 
ache ?  Then  ten  or  twelve  leeches  must  be  placed  round  the 
temple.  Cures  for  the  various  diseases  were  not  far  to  seek — 
spiders,  frogs,  worms,  and  "  slaters,"  or  wood-lice,  were  to  be  got 
in  the  shrubbery ;  ^  physic  herbs,  such  as  Solomon's  seal, 
agrimony,  rosemary,  and  pennyroyal,  were  growing  in  the 
garden ;  and  from  these  were  made  at  once  confections, 
electuaries,  and  vomitories.^  For  jaundice  as  an  admirable  cure 
was  prescribed  burnt  earthworms  in  a  decoction  of  wormwood, 
while  consumption  was  counteracted  by  "  colewort  well  boiled 
and  often  eaten,"  or  "  by  snails  boiled  in  cow's  milk."  A  case 
of  convulsions  was  treated  with  an  application  of  sheep's 
lungs,  or  by  young  pigeons,  whelps,  or  chickens  "  slit  in  the 
middle."  If  the  doctor  found  his  patient  in  an  attack  of 
palsy,  he  would  anoint  the  part  affected  with  a  "  preparation  of 
camomile,  white  lilies,  an  hyperion  of  bour-tree  and  rue,  earth- 
worms and  goose  grease."  "  The  person  suffering  from  pleurisy 
must  take  a  ball  of  horse's  dung,  well  dried,  beat  into  powder, 
drink  it,  and  he  will  be  cured  " — so  said  Dr.  Clark,  the  most 
fashionable  physician  in  Edinburgh,  whose  fee  was  a  guinea  in 
days  when  guineas  were  extremely  scarce.^  The  same  eminent 
doctor — a  skilful  practitioner  and  a  fine  classical  scholar  to 
boot — gave  a  well-paid  direction  to  Sir  Eobert  Gordon  in 
1739  to  cure  his  son:  "Give  him  twice  a  day  the  juice  of 
twenty  slatters  squeezed  through  a  muslin  bag."  These 
"  slaters,"  alias   millepeds,  alias   wood-lice,   were   in   constant 

^  Bufo,  or  toad,  was  used  inwardly  for  dropsy  and  outwardly  for  carbuncles  ; 
slaters,  otherwise  wood-lice,  or  church  bugs,  were  commended  for  colic,  convulsions, 
and  cancer,  for  palsy,  headaches,  and  epilej>sy  ;  earthworms — "to  jjreserve  them 
the  longest  and  fattest  ought  to  be  slit  up,  well  washed,  and  then  dried  " — used 
for  spasms,  jaundice,  or  gout ;  vipers  prescribed  for  dysentery,  ague,  and  small- 
pox ;  excreta  of  sheep,  horse,  sow,  and  dog  made  up  in  decoctions  and  drunk 
for  various  ailments. — Lectures  on  Materia  Medica,  from  MS.  of  Dr.  Chas.  Alston, 
Professor  of  Botany,  Edinburgh,  2  vols.  1776. 

*  In  1712  there  is  an  account  of  "the  laird  of  Kilriack  [Kilravock]  yr.,  debtor 
to  A.  Paterson,  chyr-apothecaire  at  Inverness,  for  tussilago  flower,  maiden-liair, 
mousear,  horse-tail,  St.  John's  wort,  pennyroyal,  althea  root,  white  lily  root, 
fenugreek  seed,"  as  herbs  for  medicine. — The  Roses  of  Kilravock  (Spalding  Club), 
p.  399. 

'  Social  Life  in  Moraysliire,  2nd  series,  p.  146. 


CO UNTR  V  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR  V  LIFE  5 1 

request,  the  servant  being  sent  out  to  the  garden  to  upturn 
stones,  under  which  the  vermin  nestled,  and  to  gather  them  for 
bottling.  That  the  quantity  of  them  in  demand  was  enormous 
we  may  see  from  a  prescription  by  the  great  Dr.  Pitcairn  to 
heal  the  scurvy :  "  Take  2  lbs.  of  shavings  of  sarfa  cut  and 
sliced,  boil  in  3  gallons  of  wort,  put  barm  in  it,  ^  lb.  of  crude 
antimony,  with  4  ounces  sharp-leaved  docks,  barrel  it,  then 
put  in  dried  rosemary  with  the  juice  of  400  or  500  sclaters 
squeezed  through  linen  into  the  barrel.  When  it  is  20  days 
bottled  drink  it."  Ague,  the  dreaded  trouble  in  those  marshy 
days,  was  combated  by  drugs  which  left  the  disease  triumphant ; 
for  these  concoctions  were  "  mousear  beaten  with  salt  and 
vinegar  applied  to  the  wrists,"  or  "  a  little  bit  of  ox  -  dung 
drunk  with  half  a  scruple  of  master  wort."  When  Dr.  Archibald 
Pitcairn  is  consulted  in  1704  on  a  case  of  small-pox,  he  writes, 
"  for  the  use  of  the  noble  and  honourable  family  of  March,"  a 
prescription  wherein  he  recommends — "  after  the  pox  appears 
and  fever  is  gone  steep  a  handful  of  sheep's  purles  in  a  large 
mutchkin  of  hysop  water,  then  pour  it  off  and  sweeten  it  with 
syrup  of  red  poppies,  and  then  drink  it."  Other  medicines  in 
common  use  contained  brains  of  hares  and  foxes,  snails  burnt 
in  the  shell,  powder  of  human  skull  and  Egyptian  mummy, 
burnt  hoofs  of  horses,  calcined  cockle-shells,  pigeon's  blood,  ashes 
of  little  frogs — like  to  the  diabolical  contents  of  the  witches' 
cauldron  in  Macbeth} 

If  the  country  mansion  contained,  as  it  often  did,  a  copy 
of  The  Poor  Man's  Physician,  by  the  famous  John  Moncrieff 
of  Tippermalloch,^  besides  these  remedies  might  be  learned 
other   cures,    of    which    the   surgeon   was    probably   doubtful, 

^  Wodrow  informs  liis  wife  that  bezoar — concretion  formed  in  the  stomach  of 
goats — is  taken  to  cure  small -pox.  He  bids  her  "let  blood  if  your  stitch  continue 
and  take  a  vomitic." — Correspondence,  1726.  The  Fharmacopoeia  of  Royal  College 
of  Physicians,  London,  1728,  recommends  such  remedies  as  above  ;  Materia 
Medica  of  1744  for  Edinburgh  retains  them.  Pitcairn  asserted  that  the  doctors 
did  not  know  how  to  treat  small-pox,  and  laughed  heartily  at  the  two  physicians 
who,  he  asserts,  had  killed  by  their  treatment  Sir  R.  Sibbald's  daughters,  while 
his  own  was  as  preposterous. — Chalmers'  Life  of  Ruddinuin,  p.  31. 

'^  "  TJie  Poor  Man's  Phijsician  ;  or,  the  Receits  of  the  famous  John  Moncrief  of 
Tippermalloch,  being  a  choice  collection  of  simple  and  easy  remedies  for  most  dis- 
tempers, very  useful  to  all  persons,  especially  those  of  a  poorer  condition.  Third 
edit,  carefully  corrected  and  amended,  to  which  is  added  the  method  of  curing 
the  small-pox  and  scurvy  by  the  eminent  Dr.  Arch.  Pitcairn."     Edinburgh,  1731. 


52       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

but  in  which  the  people  still  retained  their  faith  intact. 
Here  was  to  be  read  as  remedy  for  "  falling  sickness "  in 
children :  "  Take  a  little  black  sucking  puppy  (but  for  a  girl 
take  a  bitch  whelp),  choke  it,  open  it,  take  out  the  gall,  put  it 
all  to  the  child  in  the  time  of  the  fit  with  a  little  tile-tree 
flower  water,  and  you  shall  see  him  cured  as  it  were  by  a 
miracle  presently."  For  the  whitlow  in  the  finger :  "  Stop  the 
finger  into  a  cat's  ear  and  it  will  be  whole  in  half  an  hour." 
In  case  of  pestilential  fever :  "  Have  a  cataplasm  of  snails 
beaten  and  put  to  the  soles  of  the  feet."  For  watery  humour 
in  the  eyes :  "  Put  pigeon's  blood  hot  to  the  eyes,  or  a  young 
caller  pigeon  slit  in  the  back."  Among  the  concoctions, 
centauries,  and  vomitories  are  ingredients  which  it  would  be- 
hateful,  disgusting,  to  describe — not  to  speak  of  swallowing — 
which  are  recommended  far  on  in  the  century  by  country 
practitioners,  even  after  they  were  being  discredited  by  the 
more  enlightened  men  of  the  profession.^  It  says  much  for 
the  vigorous  constitutions  of  the  people  that  under  such  a 
barbarous  state  of  the  "  healing  art "  the  rate  of  mortality  of 
our  forefathers  was  so  moderate. 

When  any  one  was  out  of  health  or  spirits  a  wiser  and 
favourite  recommendation  was  for  the  patient  to  go  to  Moffat 
Wells — the  Buxton  of  Scotland — or  to  the  "  goat's  milk."  ^  In 
spite  of  difficulties  from  execrable  roads,  they  travelled  on 
horseback  into  the  Highlands,  where  they  drank  the  milk  of 
goats  as  a  sovereign  cure  for  many  an  ailment.  In  those  times 
many  gentlemen  went  "  to  the  goat's  whey  "  annually,  as  now 
they  go  to  Harrogate. 


VIII 

It  was  a  dangerous  thing  to  be  ill,  an  expensive  thing  to 
die,  and  often  a  ruinous  thing  to  be  buried— the  cost  of  a 
funeral  sometimes  being  equal  to  a  year's  rental.^      Whenever 

^  Thomson's  Life,  of  Cidlcn,  ii.  564  sq. 

2  "In  June,"  Wodrow  writes  in  1726  to  Lord  Grange,  "all  the  ministers 
about  Glasgow  were  out  of  town  at  the  goat's  milk." — Analecta  Scotica,  ii.  196. 
'Thomson's,  Life  of  Cull  en ;  Arniston  Memoirs,  p.  93. 

^  At  John  Grierson  of  Lag's  death  among  the  expenses  are  mentioned 
"2  bottels  clarit  when  the  sear  cloath  was  pnt  on  ;  1  bottel  of  clarit  when  the 


CO  UNTR  V  SOCIE  TY  AND  CO  UNTR  V  LIFE  53 

the  breath  was  out  of  the  body  the  preparations  were  made  :  the 
winding-sheet  of  wool,  the  woollen  stockings  for  the  corpse's 
feet ;  the  lyke-wake  or  watching  by  the  dead  night  and  day 
by  watchers  who  received  their  frequent  refreshment ;  the  body 
laid  out  on  view  for  all  who  wished  to  see  the  "  corp  "  in  the 
room,  with  chairs  and  other  furniture  covered  with  white  linen. 
"When  means  allowed  it  the  chirurgeon  half-embalmed  the 
body  and  provided  a  cerecloth  to  envelope  the  corpse.^  The 
invitations  to  the  funeral  having  been  sent  out  on  folio  gilt- 
edged  sheets,  friends  came  from  far  and  near  to  pay  their  last 
respects  to  his  memory,  and  their  last  attentions  to  his  cellar. 
The  feast  was  lavish  and  prolonged — the  minister  saying  the 
blessing  over  the  meat,  of  great  length,  which  constituted  the 
whole  of  his  funeral  service,  and  in  which  he  "  improved  the 
occasion  "  with  equal  solemnity  and  prolixity.  The  glass  went 
round  with  giddying  rapidity.  The  sack,  claret  and  ale  from 
the  stoups  disappeared,  and  too  often  the  mourners  sat  till  they 
could  not  stand,  and  then  with  funereal  hilarity  or  sodden 
solemnity  the  company  followed  the  remains  to  the  grave.^ 
Drinking  was  the  favourite  vice  of  the  century ;  it  brought  no 
shame,  and  it  seemed  to  impair  no  constitution.  A  man  who 
had  himself  enjoyed  immensely  many  a  festivity  at  his  bosom 
friends'  funerals  was  anxious  that  his  neighbours  should  enjoy 
equally  unstinted  satisfaction  at  his  own  death.  "  For  God's 
sake,  give  them  a  hearty  drink  "  were  a  dying  laird's  touching 

grave  cloaths  was  put  on,"  and  at  "the  cofBning  where  the  ladys  was  1  bottel 
clarit,  2  bottels  white  wine  and  1  bottel  canary."  In  fact,  every  stage  of  the 
ceremony  was  punctuated  with  drink. — Fergusson's  Laird  of  Lag,  p.  252. 

^  The  "cerecloth"  put  on  the  body  after  a  modified  embalming,  used  among 
richer  classes.  In  1720  "  ane  large  cerecloth  £66  :  13  :  4  Scots  "  (£5  :  lis.)  was  the 
charge  by  the  surgeon  ;  in  1790  it  cost  £10  :  10s. — Duncan's  Faculty  of  rhijsicians 
in  Glasgow,  p.  95.  "  Sear  claith,  oy],  frankincense,  and  other  necessars  "  charged 
in  1716, — Thanes  of  Cawdor,  p.  416.  In  1699  "  For  2  cearcloths  for  your  ladies' 
corps  £80,  and  oil  and  incense  £4." — Roses  of  Kilravock,  p.  388. 

'■^  In  1704  Lord  Whitelaw,  judge,  was  buried  at  tlie  cost  of  £5189  Scots,  or 
£423  sterg. ,  nearly  equal  to  two  years'  salary  in  those  days.^ — Ramsay's  Scot,  and 
Scotsmen,  ii.  74;  Vevgnason'^  Laird  of  Lag,  \)i).  251,  252.  At  the  funeral  entertain- 
ment of  John  Grierson  of  Lag  there  disappeared  8  dozen  of  wine,  not  to  speak  of 
potations  of  ale  ;  at  Sir  Robert  Grierson's  obsequies  there  are  cliarged  by  the  inn- 
keeper 10  doz.  wine — leaving  a  copious  drain  in  his  own  cellar  to  be  accounted 
for.  The  "  vivers  "  appear  in  a  portentous  bill  of  "rost  geese"  and  turkeys, 
dish  of  neat's  tongue,  2  doz.  "mineht  pies,  rost  pigg,  tearts,"  capons,  barrel  ©f 
oysters,  calfs  head  stewed  with  wine,  etc.  etc. 


54       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

last  words  to  his  son.^  No  wonder  English  officers  witnessing 
these  functions  pronounced  "a  Scots  funeral  to  be  merrier 
than  an  English  wedding."  The  obsequies  of  a  Highland  laird 
or  chief  was  a  still  more  sumptuous  affair.  All  friends  and 
kinsmen  within  a  hundred  miles  attended,  and  all  the  retainers 
and  vassals  were  present."  The  entertaining  of  guests  con- 
tinued for  several  days.  A  toast-master  was  chosen  from  the 
company  at  the  feast ;  the  healths  were  drunk  vociferously, 
although  the  thanks  returned  were  not  always  coherent ;  liquor 
was  emptied  in  hogsheads.  At  last  the  cortege,  miles  long, 
set  out  to  the  kirkyard,  perhaps  many  miles  away,  with 
torches  flaring,  coronachs  chanting,  or  pibrochs  wailing.  No 
wonder  many  tales  were  told  of  such  events  happening  often,  as 
did  really  occur  at  the  funeral  of  the  mother  of  Forbes  of 
Culloden,  of  the  party  arriving  at  the  grave  only  to  discover 
that  the  corpse  had  been  left  behind.^ 

In  the  Lowlands,  in  quieter  style  the  procession  passed  on, 
while  the  kirk  bell,  hanging  on  a  tree,  was  jerked  into  fitful 
tolling  by  the  beadle.  The  ladies  (who  in  the  beginning  of  the 
century  were  clad  in  their  gayest  and  brightest  dresses)  walked 
to  the  kirkyard  gate,  while  the  male  mourners  only  stood  by 
the  grave.^  If  a  gentleman  had  lost  his  wife,  etiquette  and 
supposed  emotion  alike  required  that  the  husband  should  remain 
disconsolate  behind  in  the  house,  in  dangerous  proximity  to  the 
consolatory  drink  left  by  the  departed  guests.^ 

In  Highlands  and  Lowlands  it  was  a  great  occasion  for  the 
poor,  the  blue-gowns,  and  the  vagrants.  Usually  a  laird  left  in 
his  will  so  much  meal  to  be  distributed  to  the  poor  at  his  burial, 
and  every  beggar  or  cripple  within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles,  who 
had  scented  his  prey  from  afar,  assembled  for  the  chance 
of    food    or    drink.*^      The   presence   of    this    ragged,   greedy, 

■'  Ramsay,  ii.  75  ;  Somerville,  p.  372. 
2  Burt's  Letters,  i.  219. 

^  Ramsay's  Scotland  and  Scotsmen,  ii.  75  ;  Burton's  Lives  of  Lovat  and  Forbes, 
p.  302. 

*  Caldwell  Papers,  i.  260. 

^  In  1789  James  Boswell  writes  after  the  death  of  his  wife  :  "  It  is  not 
customary  in  Scotland  for  a  husband  to  attend  his  wife's  funeral ;  but  I  resolved, 
if  I  possibly  could,  to  do  the  last  honours  myself." — Boswelliana,  p.  151,  edited 
by  C.  Rogers. 

*  At  the  funeral  of  Alexander,  Earl  of  Eglinton,  in  1723,  there  assembled 


COUNTRY  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  55 

clamorous  crowd  in  the  courtyard  added  a  sordid  element  to 
the  scene. 

When  the  death  occurred  in  a  family  of  high  standing  the 
door  of  the  church  in  which  the  deceased  gentleman  was  wont 
to  worship  was  painted  black,  and  decorated  with  white  patches, 
resembling  big  commas  or  pears  or  tadpoles,  which  were  meant 
to  represent  tears  of  the  family  for  the  loss  of  the  departed.-^ 

When  the  accounts  were  rendered  the  expenses  were 
portentous — the  bills  for  mourning,  food,  drink,  and  carriages 
amounting  to  formidable  dimensions, — and  were  not  easy  to 
defray  out  of  an  income  which  was  probably  two-thirds  paid  in 
sheep,  oats,  capons,  eggs ;  and  certainly  the  heavily  wadsetted 
estate  could  not  bear  one  burden  more.  There  was  little  to 
set  by  for  tocherless  daughters,  or  for  sons  who  must  seek  a 
living  in  any  occupation,  however  humble.  The  widow,  be  she 
wife  of  noble,  baronet,  or  simple  laird,  was  provided  with  a 
jointure  which  needed  painful  economy.^  Many  a  dowager- 
countess  in  an  Edinburgh  flat  kept  her  little  state  on  £100  a 
year,  and  a  laird's  or  baronet's  wife  managed  to  maintain  a 
genial  but  frugal  hospitality  on  an  allowance  of  £50  or  £40  ; 
nor  was  it  thought  unjust  that  a  country  gentleman,  who 
had  received  with  his  wife  a  handsome  tocher  or  dowry  of 
3000  merks,  should  leave  her  an  annuity  of  300  merks, 
£16,  as  a  sufficient  provision.  Thus  people  lived,  died,  were 
buried,  and  bequeathed  in  the  olden  days. 

between  900  and  1000  beggars,  many  of  them  from  Ireland,  as  £30  was  left  for 
distribution  in  alms. — Chambers'  Annals,  iii.  555. 

1  Parish  of  Shotts,  by  Yv.  Grossart,  p.  207  :— "  1742,  June  28.  For  colouring 
and  tearing  the  church  doors  and  lettering  them,  and  colouring  and  tearing  the 
wall  opposite  to  your  burial-place  and  lettering  the  same,  83.  Scots  "  (account  to 
the  laird  of  Murdoston).  This  custom  of  covering  the  house  front  door  with  black 
drapery  covered  with  tears  in  silver  paper  prevailed  in  France.  Warrender's 
Marchmont  and  the  Homes  of  Polwarth,  p.  13.  "  Painting  the  doors  at  Nairn  for 
the  funeral"  is  a  charge  in  1755  at  the  death  of  a  laird  of  Kilravock. — Roses  of 
Kilravock,  p.  428. 

2  The  laird  of  Bemersyde  leaves  his  widow  a  jointure  of  1300  merks,  and  there 
was  expended  at  his  funeral  £142,  including  £62  mourning  articles  from  Kelso 
for  his  daughters,  down  to  16s.  8d.  for  a  boll  of  meal  to  tlie  poor  and  2s.  for  the 
bell-man. — Russell's  Haigs  of  Bemersyde.  Sir  James  Smollett  of  Bonhill  in  1735 
leaves  his  widow  a  jointure  of  £44  : 8  :  10. — Chambers'  Life  of  Smollett,  p.  217. 
Curious  instances  of  these  small  provisions  are  given  in  Murray's  Old  Cardross, 
p.  86. 


CHAPTEE    II 

COUNTKY    SOCIETY   AND    COUNTRY   MANNERS 
1750-1800 


Until  about  1760  the  life  of  Scottish  country  society  re- 
mained frugal,  homely,  and  provincial.  At  that  period,  how- 
ever, there  were  distinct  signs  of  a  great  change  coming  over 
tastes,  manners,  and  habits.  Wider  interests  began  to  stir  in 
the  country,  more  comfortable  ways  of  living  to  be  adopted  by 
the  people.  The  rise  of  fortunes,  which  we  have  elsewhere 
described,  due  to  the  sudden  increase  of  rental  from  land  and 
profits  from  trade,  wrought  a  transformation  in  the  style, 
tone,  and  domestic  economy  of  Scotland. 

As  old  country  houses  became  decayed  or  insufficient  for 
the  more  exacting  tastes  of  the  age,  new  mansions  were  built 
which  contrasted  strangely  with  the  homely  homes  of  simpler 
days — homes  which,  if  not  broken  down  to  form  byres  and 
dykes,  were  left  to  be  occupied  by  the  farmers,  with  ruder  ways 
even  than  their  lairdly  predecessors.  The  low-ceilinged  rooms, 
the  dark  and  draughty  passages,  the  narrow,  sashless,  small-paned 
windows,  the  walls  four  or  five  feet  thick,  were  absent  from  the 
new  mansions,  which,  if  they  had  little  architectural  beauty, 
had  more  light,  more  space,  more  comfort.  By  the  disappear- 
ance of  these  old-fashioned  houses  the  country  lost  little  in 
picturesqueness,  for  they  had  been  usually  hopelessly  common- 
place, with  little  that  was  quaint  save  in  the  crow-stepped 
gables  and  rounded  turrets.  What  was  characteristic  and 
striking  in  ancient  Scotch  building  was  to  be  found  chiefly  in 


CO UNTR  V  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR  Y  MANNERS        57 

the  larger  mansions  and  castles,  with  their  grim,  venerable  walls, 
the  high  slated  towers,  those  battlements  which  had  forgotten 
their  purpose  in  peaceful  times.  Unhappily,  many  of  those 
fine  old  residences,  dating  from  the  sixteenth  century,  with 
their  characteristic  style  and  sombre  dignity,  were  removed  to 
make  way  for  others  of  an  "  improved  "  class,  which  consisted 
in  the  mock  classic,  and  accorded  with  the  highest  taste  of 
the  period.^ 

There  were  equal  changes  going  on  within  the  walls.  In 
the  old  rooms  had  been  the  rough,  solid  furniture,  which  had 
been  made  by  the  joiners  in  the  country  towns,  or  in  the 
big  woodyards  of  Edinburgh  or  Glasgow,  where  there  was  a 
supply  of  timber  kept  ready  for  every  purpose,  from  axles  to 
sideboards,  from  joists  to  tables,  and  household  articles  were 
made  by  the  carpenters  to  suit  each  customer — and  fine  oak 
pieces  they  often  were,  which,  after  being  discarded,  another 
generation  began  to  prize."  By  the  middle  of  the  century 
there  were  two  upholsterers  set  up  in  business  in  the  High 
Street,  Edinburgh,  who  imported  goods  from  England,  and 
gratified  the  new  demand  for  carpets  and  drawing-room 
furniture  of  finer  finish.  The  walls  of  the  rooms  either  had 
remained  coloured  plaster  or  had  their  nakedness  covered  in 
rich  houses  with  arras,  or  leather,  for  paper  was  almost  never 
seen,  and  never  made  in  Scotland.  In  1745  an  adventurous 
tradesman  began  a  business  in  "  painted  paper  for  hanging 
walls "  in  Edinburgh — the  maker  confining  himself  to  two 
colours  with  designs  of  a  rudimentary  taste.^  The  recess- 
beds  with  plaiding  curtains  vanished  from  drawing-room  and 
bedroom ;  the  pewter  plates  and  dishes  went  the  way  of  their 
"  timber "  predecessors,  and  china  and  delf  came  in  their 
stead,  greatly  to  the  encouragement  of  the  struggling  industry 
in  Leith  and  Glasgow ;  the  pewter  "  stoups  "  in  which  claret 
had  been  served,  when  bottles  cost  4d.  each,  gave  place  to 

1  Macgibboii  and  Ross's  Castellated  and  Domestic  Architecture  of  Scotland, 
vol.  iv. 

-  Such  was  the  timber-yard  kept  in  Glasgow  by  the  brother-in-law  of  John 
and  William  Hunter,  the  great  anatomists,  called  "Amen"  Buchanan,  from 
having  been  precentor  in  the  episcopal  meeting-house. — Paget's  Life  of  John 
Hunter,  p.  35. 

^  kviiofs  History  of  Edinburgh,  1789,  p.  600. 


58       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 

green  glass  bottles,  which  the  glass-blowers  in  Leith  were 
then  making. 

The  hours  of  dinner  rose  from  one  o'clock  of  the  early 
part  of  the  century  to  two,  and  even  to  three  o'clock  in  fashion- 
able circles,  and  with  the  change  of  hour  came  grateful  changes 
of  service  and  diet.  The  food  was  not  always  now  put  down 
on  table  all  at  once,  and  two  courses  came  to  tempt  the  palate 
and  appease  the  appetite.^  The  improvement  in  agriculture 
enabled  people  to  have  fresh  meat  all  the  year  round,  so  that 
it  was  no  longer  necessary  to  kill  the  "  mart "  and  subsist  on 
salted  beef  or  mutton  for  half  the  year.  Only  quaint-fashioned 
gentry  followed  the  olden  ways.  There  was  Lord  Polkemmet, 
who,  with  his  docile  household,  methodically  ate  the  animal  from 
nose  to  tail,  going  down  one  side  and  up  the  other,  till,  to  the 
relief  of  the  family,  the  salt  carcass  was  finished — only,  how- 
ever, making  way  for  another.  The  memories  of  those  old-world 
experiences  lasted  in  the  minds  of  persons  who  survived  to 
more  luxurious  days.  The  ancient  lady  who  still  continued  in 
the  next  century  the  venerable  custom,  and  whose  ox  killed  in 
November  lasted  her  half  the  year,  because  she  partook  of  it 
only  with  friends  on  Sunday,  not  long  before  her  death  urged 
her  neighbour.  Sir  Thomas  Lauder,  to  dine  with  her  next 
Sabbath,  as  her  earthly  career  was  nearly  run,  saying,  in  vivid 
metaphor,  "  For  eh.  Sir  Thamas,  we're  terrible  near  the  tail 
end  noo  !  "  ^ 

Yet  even  with  a  more  varied  mode  of  diet,  though  the 
everlasting  broth  (or  "  broath  " — for  so  all  society  spelt  and 
pronounced  it)  and  the  salt  meat  and  "kain  hens"  were 
not  inevitable  at  a  repast,  there  was  still  severe  plainness 
in  the  cooking  and  monotony  in  the  fare ;  while  haggis, 
cockyleeky,  singed  sheep's  head,  friars'  chicken,  and  cabbiclaw 
simultaneously  allured  the  appetite.^     Even  at  a  nobleman's 

^  The  fare  in  houses  of  men  of  position  and  wealth  can  be  learned  from  the 
culinary  records  of  Arniston  House  in  1748,  when  Lord  President  Dundas  lived: 
"Dec.  4,  Sunday — Cockyleeky,  boiled  beef  and  greens,  roast  goose  (2  bottles  of 
claret,  2  white  wine,  2  strong  ale).  Supper — Mutton  stewed  with  turnips,  drawn 
eggs  (1  bottle  claret,  1  white  wine,  1  strong  ale).  Monday,  dinner — Pea  soup, 
boiled  turkey,  roast  beef,  apple  pie.  Supper— Mutton  steak,  drawn  eggs,  and 
gravy  potatoes,  my  lord's  broath.  Tuesday,  dinner — Sheep's-head  broth,  shoulder 
of  mutton,  roast  goose,  smothered  rabbits." — Omond's  Arniston  Memoirs,  p.  108. 

-  Cockburn's  Memorials,  p.  QQ.  ^  Topham's  Letters,  p.  156. 


COUNTR  V  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  MANNERS        59 

table  about  1760  ^  there  might  be  no  vegetables  seen ;  and  the 
English  traveller,  about  1770,  alleged  that  the  turnips — still 
always  called  "  neeps  " — appeared  as  dessert.^  Things,  how- 
ever, changed  a  little  later,  and  it  could  no  longer  be  maliciously 
asserted  that  the  Scots  had  no  fruit  but  turnips. 

Country  sports  and  occupations  had  somewhat  changed. 
Hawking  became  obsolete ;  ^  and  gentlemen  no  longer  prided 
themselves  on  the  merits  of  their  falcons.  But  shooting 
became  more  a  pursuit ;  for  besides  the  abundant  sport  on  the 
wide-spreading  moors,  if  there  were  fewer  wild  duck  in  morass 
and  bog,  there  were  partridges  in  fields  where  the  newly-grown 
turnips,  potatoes,  and  corn  gave  cover,  which  a  few  years 
before  they  would  have  sought  for  in  vain  in  the  bare  waste 
or  marsh.  Agriculture  and  forestry  had  become  a  new  pastime 
and  occupation  in  the  country.  Gentlemen  were  everywhere 
busy  improving  their  residences,  as  much  outside  as  inside  ;  and 
where  ploughed  fields  and  heathery  wastes  had  come  up  to  the 
courtyard  or  front  door,  were  now  avenues  of  lime,  or  oak,  or 
elm.  Planting  and  farming,  in  fact,  had  become  the  absorbing 
passion  of  lairds,  young  and  old ;  and  a  very  expensive  one 
they  often  found  it.  They  planted  in  every  hollow  and  on 
every  hill,  and  eagerly  watched  their  saplings  grow  to  trees,  to 
the  dismay  of  the  farmers,  who  regarded  them  as  destructive 
to  the  soil  and  the  crops.  Lords  of  Session,  when  they  came 
back  from  the  law-courts  to  their  country  houses,  were  full 
of  eagerness  to  return  to  their  woods.  Lord  Kames  and 
Lord  Dunsinane,  the  moment  they  arrived  at  their  homes, 
although  it  was  dark,  were  out  with  lanterns  in  their  hands  to 
see  how  the  trees  had  grown  since  last  they  saw  them ;  and 
Lord  Auchinleck  was  up  every  morning  by  five  o'clock  and  in 
the  "  policy  "  pruning  his  young  wood.  No  longer  did  lairds 
buy,  as  their  fathers  had  bought,  acorns  by  the  pound,  and 
chestnut  seed  by  the  ounce,  to  rear  in  the  shrubbery.      They 

^  Wesley  writes  in  1780:  "When  I  was  in  Scotland  first  [1762],  even  at  a 
nobleman's  table  we  had  only  flesh  meat  of  one  kind,  and  no  vegetables  of  any 
kind  ;  but  now  they  are  as  plentiful  liere  as  in  England." — Journal,  vol  iv. 
p.  418. 

^  Humphrey  Clinker  ;  Topham's  Letters  from  Edinburgh,  p.  229. 

'  About  1750  in  the  Caledonian  Mercury  advertisements  are  still  frequent  of 
the  finding  or  the  loss  of  hawks,  "  with  bells  and  silver  vervels." 


6o       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

planted  them  in  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  in  the  open 
ground. 

"With  increase  of  incomes,  and  through  wider  intercourse 
with  society,  there  came  more  expenses — the  taste  for  dressing 
better,  entertaining  more,  and  travelUng  farther,  for  that  im- 
proved roads  now  permitted.  There  is  clear  witness  to  the 
change  in  coaching  ways  in  the  fact  ^  that  formerly  all  the 
coaches  or  chaises  were  brought  over  expensively  from  Holland, 
France,  or  England ;  that  only  in  1738  a  coach-work  was  first 
set  up  in  Edinburgh  by  a  man  trained  in  London,  whence  he 
brought  north  the  tools  which  had  hitherto  been  unknown  in 
the  city.  Now,  where  their  fathers  had  modestly  gone  on  horse- 
back, with  ladies  on  pillion  behind,  the  richer  lairds  had  their 
coach,  with  their  horses  of  a  finer  breed  than  the  ill-groomed, 
small,  yet  clumsy  brutes  which  had  sufficed  in  the  past.  Though 
households  were  conducted  on  less  frugal  order  than  before, 
when  servants  even  in  the  wealthier  establishments  had  salt 
meat  three  days  a  week,  and  broth  or  soup-maigre  the  rest, 
wages  were  moderate,  even  in  a  mansion  of  high  degree.^ 

There  was  one  pernicious  custom — the  giving  of  "  vails  " 
or  presents,  which  really  had  the  effect  of  keeping  down  the 
wages  of  men-servants.  This  obnoxious  system  was  even  more 
inveterate  and  burdensome  in  England,  where  it  was  impossible 
to  dine  at  a  rich  man's  board  without  having  heavy  social  black- 
mail silently  extorted.  The  impecunious  author  could  not  dine 
with  his  noble  patron,  nor  the  half-starved,  full-familied  curate 
dine  with  his  bishop,  without  leaving  behind  him  a  guinea  in 
the  hands  of  menials  much  richer  than  himself ;  and,  in  conse- 
quence, was  forced  to  pawn  his  watch,  if  he  had  one,  or  do 
without  dinner  the  rest  of  the  week,  to  defray  the  expense  of 
sitting  at  his  lordship's  table  for  an  hour.     The  departing  guest 

^  Arnot's  Hist,  of  Edinbunih,  p.  599.  —  Before  the  end  of  the  century  Edin- 
burgh built  coaches  which  were  exported  to  principal  towns  on  the  Baltic  and 
to  St.  Petersburg.  "  In  1783  a  thousand  crane-backed  carriages  ordered  for  Paris." 
— Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce,  iv.  35. 

2  House  servants  at  Gordonston  in  1740  were  paid:  "Two  gentlemen,  £10  ; 
five  maids,  £5:6:4;  two  cooks,  £5;  two  porters,  £3;  groom,  £5  :5s."  In 
1758  the  English  housckeepei- — who  arrives  riding  pillion— had  £7  "for  wedges, 
including  tea  and  sugar." — Dunbar's  Social  Life  in  Former  Times,  2nd  series, 
p.  156. 


CO UNTR  V  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR  V  MANNERS        6i 

had  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  a  row  of  expectant  men  in  livery,  and 
two  or  three  guineas  was  a  common  sum — ten  guineas  not  an 
unknown  sum — to  leave  with  footmen  after  being  entertained 
at  a  great  man's  house. 

This  also  was  the  practice  in  Scotland,  although  on  a  scale 
proportionate  to  its  more  limited  means.  There  was  an  inces- 
sant social  tax  of  "  drink  money,"  "  card  money,"  "  guest  money," 
which  was  becoming  intolerable.  The  origin  of  the  practice 
can  in  Scotland  be  traced  to  the  old  custom  of  giving  ale  or 
drink-money  to  every  one  who  did  a  service,  or  performed  any 
work.  In  old  account-books  of  the  early  part  of  the  century 
the  entries  are  constant  of  so  much  ale  being  given,  or  money 
to  buy  it.  If  a  man  brought  to  the  laird's  house  a  pair  of 
shoes,  or  an  account  for  its  payment,  there  was  given  "  drink 
money,"  or  "  a  gill  of  ale,"  or  "  pigtail  tobacco  " ;  if  the  mason 
had  built  the  churchyard  dyke,  or  the  wright  had  set  up  a  pew, 
the  Kirk-Session  allowed  him  "  drink  money  "  ;  if  the  workmen 
had  repaired  a  causeway,  or  mended  the  town  clock,  the  Town 
Council  handed  them  "  drink  money."  ^  As  a  matter  of  course, 
the  servants  in  houses  shared  with  servants  outside  the  pleasant 
custom.  It  could  be  borne  as  long  as  it  amounted  only  to  a 
few  pence  ;  but  contact  with  English  fashion  had  brought  larger 
expectations  to  the  menial's  countenance,  and  heavier  demands 
on  the  guest's  purse.  At  last  the  gentlemen  in  Scotland 
rebelled  against  this  system,  and  resolved  that  they  would  con- 
tinue it  no  longer,  preferring  to  give  higher  wages  to  their 
servants  than  allow  them  to  sponge  on  the  forced  liberality  of 
their  friends.  Gentlemen  in  Aberdeenshire  and  Midlothian, 
and  members  of  the  Bar — most  of  whom  were  persons  con- 
nected with  the  best  families  in  the  country — bound  them- 
selves no  longer  to  give  or  allow  their  servants  to  receive  "  guest 
money  "  in  future.  The  resolution  was  carried  out  with  such 
determination  that  the  rapacious  practice  was  at  once  put 
an  end  to,  and  higher  wages  were  given  to  tlie  men  of  livery.^ 

^  "To  the  wright  to  drink  for  making  and  setting  up  caise  for  the  knock  on 
the  stairs,  5s.  Scots.";  "^  lib  pigtail  for  y,-or\<.ma.n."—Accou7it  Book  of  Sir  J. 
Foulis,  pp.  57,  371.  In  estimate  for  repairing  Morton  kirk,  1722,  is  included 
"  item,  to  a  morning  drink  each  day,  or  18d.  per  rood  more,  £6:1:  3." — Morton 
Fresby.  llccords. 

2  Arnot's/A'si,  of  Edinburgh,  p.  375.    The  beginning  of  the  movement  towards 


62       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Not  so  in  England.  Though,  following  the  example  of  Scottish 
gentry,  the  Grand  Jury  of  Northumberland,  and  also  of  Wilt- 
shire, pledged  themselves  to  discourage  all  giving  of  vails,  the 
private  resolution  of  some  economical  country  gentlemen  could 
not  change  the  custom  of  fashionable  society.^ 


II 

As  the  century  advanced,  as  the  roads  were  improved,  as 
communication  between  different  parts  of  the  country  became 
easier,  the  intercourse  of  town  and  country  people  became  more 
frequent,  and  old  provincialism  of  life,  speech,  dress,  and  manners 
diminished. 

Gradually  the  means  of  communication  by  stage-coaches 
increased  between  the  important  towns,  as  by  the  rise  of  wealth 
and  improvement  of  roads  the  number  of  travellers  increased.^ 
The  slow  pace  of  olden  times  was  quickened  in  the  new  period. 
When  the  famous  failure  of  Fordyce  in  London  was  announced 
on  that  Black  Monday  in  June  1772,  bringing  disaster  to  almost 
every  private  bank  and  to  many  thousands  in  Scotland,  the 
calamitous  news  was  brought  down  by  a  gentleman  postiug  in 
the  short  space  of  forty-three  hours,  for  he  travelled  night  and 
day.^     By  1786  there  had  been  made  a  remarkable  improve- 

abolishing  vails  Arnot  attributes  to  incidents  connected  with  the  performances 
of  Townley's  farce  of  High  Life  below  Stairs  in  1759  ;  when  the  footmen,  who 
were  allowed  to  frequent  the  gallery  free,  while  their  masters  sat  in  the  boxes, 
were  filled  with  resentment  at  the  ridicule  cast  on  their  ways,  pretensions,  and 
extortions.  They  presented  a  threatening  letter  to  the  manager,  Mr.  Love,  who 
next  night  coolly  read  the  menace  from  the  stage.  The  footmen  disturbed  the 
play  with  their  din  and  wild  noise,  till  they  were  driven  out  of  the  house,  and 
the  privilege  of  gratis  admission  was  withdrawn.  A  similar  incident,  if  not  the 
very  one  ascribed  to  Edinburgh,  occurred  in  Drury  Lane  Theatre. 

1  Lecky's  Hist,  of  England,  i.  572  ;  Roberts'  Social  Hist,  of  Southern  Counties, 
pp.  32,  34.  As  Sir  Richard  Steele  passed  with  Bishop  Hoadly  from  a  duke's 
house  through  a  formidable  row  of  lackeys  in  waiting,  conscious  that  he  had  no 
money  to  give,  and  more  need  to  borrow,  he  told  them  instead  that  he  should  be 
delighted  to  see  them  any  night  at  Drury  Lane  to  see  his  play. 

^  For  the  fly  from  Edinburgh  to  Aberdeen  the  fare  was  £2  :  2s. 

^  Scots  Magazine^  June  1772.  The  partner  in  Forbes'  Bank  set  forth  after 
an  embezzling  clerk,  and  made  the  journey  to  London  in  forty  hours,  allowing 
two  hours  in  Newcastle,  and  some  time  in  York. — Memoirs  of  a  Banking  House, 
p.  57. 


CO  UNTR  V  SOCIE TY  AND  CO  UNTR  V  MANNERS        63 

luent  on  the  old  arrangements  and  the  old  speed.  Instead  of 
the  coach  that  had  gone  once  a  month  from  Edinburgh  to 
London,  taking  from  twelve  to  sixteen  days  on  the  expedition, 
there  were  two  coaches  which  started  from  the  Grassmarket 
every  day,  and  arrived  at  the  Capital  in  sixty  hoiirs.^  Even 
Glasgow  at  last  came  in  touch  with  London.  Although  its 
population  had  increased  with  rapid  strides,  alike  in  numbers 
and  in  prosperity,  until  1788^  there  was  no  direct  transit 
to  London  for  a  population  of  60,000.  Any  who  wished 
to  travel  southwards  were  obliged  to  ride  the  whole  way, 
or  to  set  sail  from  Borrowstounness  by  a  trading  vessel,  which 
in  foul  weather  was  a  month  on  the  voyage  from  the  town ; 
or  to  ride  to  Newcastle,  where  he  found  the  ponderous 
Newcastle  waggon,  with  six  wheels  and  eight  horses,  which 
carried  heavy  goods,  and  such  passengers  as  could  find 
accommodation  under  the  canvas  with  the  straw-littered  floor. 
Twenty-five  miles  a  day  it  made  on  its  lumbering  course,  and  it 
took  eighteen  days  to  finish  the  journey,  stopping  two  Sundays 
on  the  road.  If  these  means  were  not  expeditious  enough,  the 
more  luxurious  citizen  took  the  stage-coach  (day's  journey)  to 
Edinburgh,  whence  he  travelled  south.  The  citizen  who  had 
made  a  tour  so  remarkable,  to  a  destination  so  remote,  became 
an  object  of  interest  to  his  fellow-townsmen.^  By  1788  enter- 
prise was  sufficiently  awakened  to  venture  on  the  establish- 
ment of  a  direct  stage-coach  to  run  from  Glasgow  to  London ; 
and  this,  being  one  of  the  quick  coaches  lately  instituted  by 
Palmer,  performed  the  journey  of  405  miles  in  sixty-five  hours, 
at  the  cost  of  £4  :16s.  to  each  inside  passenger. "^  Swifter 
arrangements  had  also  brought  the  west  country  nearer  to  the 

^  Creech  mentions  as  a  remarkable  fact  that  in  1782  a  person  may  set  out  on 
Sunday  afternoon — "after  divine  service"  lie  is  careful  to  add — from  Edinburgh, 
may  stay  a  whole  day  in  London,  and  be  again  in  Edinburgh  on  Saturday  at  six 
in  the  morning. — Fugitive  Pieces,  p.  68. 

'^  Glasgow  I'ast  and  Present,  ii.  144  ;  Strang's  Clubs  of  Glasgow,  p.  132. 

^  The  stage-coach  between  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  in  twelve  hours,  starting 
at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning — the  fare  12s.  for  each  passenger,  and  lOd.  a  stone 
for  all  luggage  in  excess  of  one  stone.  The  coach  from  Edinburgh  to  Stirling 
cost  8s. — Scots  Magazine,  1766,  p.  273.  In  1799  the  speed  was  increased,  till  it 
only  took  six  hours  between  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow. — Chambers'  Dom.  Annals, 
iii.  612. 

*  Strang's  Clubs  of  Glasgow,  p.  132  ;  Glasgow  Past  and  Present,  iii.  436. 


64        SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

east,  and  by  the  end  of  the  century  Glasgow  folk  could  be  carried 
by  stage-coach  to  Edinburgh  in  six  hours. 

With  this  greater  speed  of  communication,  and  the  more 
frequent  intercourse  of  society  and  interchange  of  business,  the 
wretched  hovels  which  had  long  done  duty  for  inns,  and  the 
miserable  hostelries  which  alone  had  offered  accommodation  to 
travellers,  began  to  disappear.  In  Edinburgh,  comfortable, 
cleanly  houses,  which  bore  the  name,  then  strange  in  Scotland, 
of  "  hotels,"  were  built ;  ^  and  many  Englishmen  who,  bent  on 
pleasure  or  on  business,  began  to  travel  north  of  the  border 
towards  the  end  of  the  century,  had  experiences  different 
from,  and  incalculably  pleasanter  than,  those  of  their  country- 
men who  in  less  progressive  times  had  ventured  on  Scottish 
soil  and  sojourned  in  malodorous  Scottish  inns.  Not  that  the 
comparative  improvement  in  food,  attendance,  rooms,  and  beds 
in  North  Britain  could  satisfy  any  one  accustomed  to  those 
charming  old  hostelries  in  the  south,  where  comfort  reigned 
over  all ;  for  still  in  remote  districts  and  far-off  towns,  even 
into  the  nineteenth  century,  the  disorder  and  dirt  of  olden 
times  showed  no  signs  of  disappearing,  and  the  traveller 
resigned  himself  to  the  disagreeables  of  each  tavern  in  his 
route,  in  vain  hopes  that  the  next  might  compensate  for  the 
miseries  of  the  last. 

The  post  increased  in  speed  and  frequency  as  roads  be- 
came more  passable,  and  correspondents  became  more  numerous. 
The  letters  had  been  carried  to  Glasgow  by  a  post-boy  on 
horseback  ;  but  in  1797,  it  is  triumphantly  said,  "  they  are  now 
carried  in  a  single  horse-chaise  by  a  person  properly  armed." 
Edinburgh  by  1780  had  no  less  than  six  letter-carriers  to 
distribute  among  a  population  of  70,000  souls;  and  through- 
out the  country,  instead  of  having  only  thirty -four  post-towns 
as  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  there  were  a  hundred  and 
sixty-four  at  its  close.  This  intercommunication  of  town 
with  town,  and  country  with  city,  was  affecting  the  whole 
social  life.^ 

^  Creech's  Fugitive  Pieces,  p.  69  ;  Smollett's  Humphrey  Clinker. 

'^  In  1765  the  postage  of  letters  carried  on  stage  (50  miles)  was  reduced  in 
England  from  3d.  to  Id.,  and  in  Scotland  from  2d.  to  Id. — Arnot's  Hist,  of 
Edinhurgh,  p.  540.  Letters  carried  from  Ediulmrgh  to  London  in  1790  in  four 
days. — Ibid.  p.  536. 


CO UNTR  V  SOCIETY  AND  CO  UNTR  Y  MANNERS        65 


III 

We  have  seen  how  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  it  was 
extremely  difficult  to  find  occupation  for  sons  at  home,  or  a 
career  abroad,  which  could  afford  them  a  decent  livelihood,  far 
less  gain  them  a  fortune.  The  common  jibe  was  that  when  a 
Scotsman  left  his  native  soil  he  never  cared  to  return,  and 
that  though  he  might  die  for  his  country  he  would  not  live 
in  it.  Certainly  at  that  period  there  was  some  semblance  of 
truth  in  the  taunt.  There  was  no  employment  for  a  man 
of  genius  or  ambition  in  a  country  so  poor.  A  man  of  enter- 
prise went  to  London  to  try  his  fortune  as  naturally  as  a 
clever  Breton  goes  to  Paris.  Brilliant  poets  and  politicians, 
painters,  doctors,  and  architects  would  have  starved  at  home 
or  died  in  obscurity,  and  they  sought,  therefore,  their  careers 
four  hundred  miles  off.  Had  Dr.  Cheyne,  famed  as  physician 
and  bon-vivant,  remained  in  Scotland,  the  poor  fees  he  would 
have  got  could  never  have  allowed  him  to  attain  his  huge 
bulk  of  thirty  stone,  nor  could  he  with  that  Falstaffian  frame 
of  his  have  been  able  to  pant  up  a  turnpike  stair,  and  squeeze 
through  narrow  entries  to  his  patients  in  an  Edinburgh  fourth 
flat.  So  to  England  he  went ;  to  be  followed,  by  and  by,  by  Dr. 
Armstrong  to  find  patients  for  his  physic  and  patrons  for  his 
verse,  and  still  later  by  the  Hunters  to  gain  great  reputations, 
and  by  the  Fordyces  to  make  pleasant  fortunes  and  profitable 
practices,  while  Dr.  Cullen  wrought  laboriously  at  home  to 
earn  small  fees.  Frugal  town  councils  cared  not  to  spend 
money  in  magnificent  public  buildings,  still  less  in  churches, 
to  ornament  a  city,  and  gentlemen  rarely  reared  mansions 
worthy  of  their  estate  ;  wherefore  architects  capable  of  brilliant 
designs  would  have  been  confined  to  making  plans  which  a 
respectable  stone-mason  could  have  drawn.  Though  distin- 
guished draughtsmen  did  occasionally  do  work — and  good 
work — in  their  own  country,  it  was  abroad  they  studied  their 
art  and  in  England  they  practised  it — James  Gibb,  who 
became  architect  of  Eadcliffe  Library  at  Oxford  and  St. 
Martin's  Church  in  London ;  Eobert  Mylne,  who  designed 
Blackfriars  Bridge ;  and  the  brothers  Adam,  who  had  no  scope 

VOL.  I  6 


66       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

for  their  talents  at  home,  any  more  than  James  Watt  for  his 
inventive  genius.  It  was  in  England  Scots  artists — Aikman, 
Strange,  Eanisay — sought  their  public  and  their  patrons. 
Colin  Maclaurin,  the  brilliant  young  natural  philosopher, 
eagerly  had  given  up  his  pittance  of  £G0  a  year  as  Professor  of 
Mathematics  to  become  travelling  tutor  to  a  young  gentleman ; 
David  Hume  was  glad  to  become  governor  to  a  hopelessly 
imbecile  peer ;  and,  later  still,  Adam  Smith  quitted  his  chair 
in  the  University  of  Glasgow  to  earn  a  better  living  as 
travelling  companion  to  a  youthful  duke. 

With  the  development  of  trade,  however,  bringing  increase 
of  wealth,  there  came  more  encouragement  at  home  to  men  of 
talent  and  energy  in  professions  and  business  and  commerce ; 
while  for  the  adventurous  there  were  being  opened  avenues 
to  fortunes  far  afield  in  India  and  the  Indies,  where  they 
planted  and  bought  estates,  and  returned  to  buy  properties 
and  settle  down  as  rich  lairds.  By  the  end  of  the  century 
Scots  gentlemen  not  merely  secured  good  posts  for  their  sons, 
but  their  influence  was  able  to  get  good  posts  for  even  their 
dependants,  as  cadets  in  the  army  and  civil  servants  in  the 
"  Company  " ;  and  many  sons  of  crofters  and  mechanics  were 
sent  abroad,  where  they  won  reputations  and  fortunes  and 
titles.^ 

Nor  was  there  any  department  of  business  or  any  pro- 
fession in  England  where  Scots  were  not  found  making  careers 
with  a  pertinacious  success,  which  brought  on  them  and  their 
country  many  a  jeer  from  southern  lips  and  lampoons  from 
Grub  Street.  Sir  Pertinax  Macsycophant  of  Macklin's  Man 
of  the,  Worldf  who  makes  his  way  by  cunning,  cringing,  and 

^  "  How  many  of  these  fine  lads  did  my  father  and  Charles  Grant  send  out 
to  India  !  Some  that  throve,  some  that  only  passed,  some  that  made  a  name  we 
were  all  proud  of,  and  not  one  that  I  heard  of  that  disgraced  the  homely  rearing 
of  their  humbly-positioned  but  gentle-born  parents.  .  .  .  Sir  Charles  Forbes  was 
the  son  of  a  small  farmer  in  Aberdeenshire.  Sir  William  Grant,  the  Master  of 
the  Rolls,  was  a  mere  peasant — his  uncles  floated  my  father's  timber  down  the 
Spey.  General  William  Grant  was  a  footboy  in  my  uncle  Rothie's  family.  Sir 
Colquhoun  Grant,  though  a  wood-setter's  child,  was  but  poorly  reared.  Sir 
William  Macgregor,  whose  history  was  most  romantic  of  all,  was  such  another. 
The  list  could  be  easily  lengthened  did  my  memory  serve." — Memoirs  of  a 
Highland  Lady,  p.  99  (Miss  Elizabeth  Grant  of  Rothiemurchus). 

-  The  original  title  of  the  piece  was  the  "True-born  Scotsman,"  which  was- 


CO UMTR  Y  SOCIETY  AND  CO UXTR  Y  MAXiXERS        67 

wily  persistence,  by  "  booing  and  aye  booing,"  and  Sir  Archy 
Macsarcasm  with  his  cantankerous  soul  in  Love  ct  la  Mode, 
contrasting  with  the  generous  Irishman  of  the  play,  were 
considered  admirably  accurate  portraits  of  the  typical  Xorth 
Briton.  In  fact,  it  would  have  been  regarded  as  incongruous 
to  put  on  the  stage  or  in  a  satire  a  Scotsman  without  mean- 
ness and  pawkiness,  or  to  mention  Scotland  without  allusion 
to  its  filth  and  its  poverty,  as  it  would  have  been  to  represent 
a  Jew  without  his  red  beard  and  his  sibilant  "  cent  per  cent," 
or  Teamie  without  his  blunders  and  his  brogue.  The  un- 
popularity  of  Lord  Bute,  the  royal  favourite,  was  more  owing 
to  his  being  a  Scotsman  than  to  being  an  incompetent  states- 
man. That  a  Scots  regiment  should  be  called  out  to  put 
down  a  "Wilkes  riot  in  London  stirred  popular  indignation 
more  than  proposing  to  employ  Eed  Indians  to  put  down  the 
white  rebels  in  America.  So  extreme  was  this  national  anti- 
pathy that  when  Garrick  produced  Home's  Fatal  Discovery, 
he  was  obliged  to  conceal  its  source  and  make  an  Oxford 
student  stand  godfather  to  the  play ;  and  the  success  of  the 
piece  instantly  ceased  when  the  Scotsman,  greedy  of  praise, 
proclaimed  his  authorship.^ 

This  antipathy  was  reciprocated  heartily.  Scotsmen  evinced 
under  the  sneers,  and  they  were  embittered  by  the  spleen  of 
those  "  factious  barbarians,"  as  David  Hume  called  them.  In 
patriotic  effort  to  magnify  their  own  qualities,  they  prepos- 
terously over-rated  everything  and  everybody  Scottish,  till  the 
unread  and  unreadable  Epigoniad  of  Wilkie — that  grotesque 
lout  of  genius — was  declared  by  Hume  and  many  compatriots 
worthy  of  a  place  beside  Paradise  Lost,  and  Home's  Douglas 
was  proclaimed  as  fine  a  play  as  Macbeth,  which  its  author 
thoroughly  believed.  Time  ended  these  international  reprisals, 
and  brought  peace  to  this  uncivil  war. 

prohibited.  Horace  "Walpole  said  he  had  heard  there  was  little  merit  in  the 
play  except  the  resemblance  of  Sir  Pertinax  to  twenty  thousand  Scotsmen. — 
Letters,  vol.  riii.  p.  44. 

^  Mackenzie's  Life  and  Writings  of  Home,  p.  63. 


I 


68       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 


IV 

Amid  the  many  important  economical  and  social  changes 
which  came  gradually  over  the  country — growing  wealth, 
wider  knowledge  of  the  world,  greater  appreciation  of  the 
gains  of  civilisation — we  may  expect  to  find  a  larger  apprecia- 
tion of  art.  This  expectation  is  but  moderately  fulfilled. 
While  we  have  seen  that  artists  had  scanty  encouragement 
from  gentlemen  who  were  too  poor  to  pay  for  pictures  and 
too  uncivilised  to  care  for  them,  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
century  they  at  least  could  earn  a  livelihood,  and  country 
houses  began  to  show  upon  their  walls  paintings — not  very 
many,  not  very  precious — where  thirty  years  before  had  been 
blank  wastes  of  dingy -coloured  plaster  or  discoloured  oak. 
Several  youths  had  been  engaged  in  drawing  in  that  poor  little 
"  school  "  in  Edinburgh  that  called  itself  an  "  academy,"  under 
the  patronage  of  St.  Luke,  where  they  aimed  at  greatness  and 
often  ended  as  house-painters,  copying  "  bustoes "  and  poor 
reproductions  under  a  querulous  and  ill-paid  teacher.  There 
they  gained  all  their  acquaintance  with  the  achievements  of  art, 
supplemented  by  seeing  in  a  country  house  fourth-rate  pictures 
picked  up  by  gentlemen  on  their  foreign  tours.  Patrons  helped 
impecunious  promising  youths  to  go  to  Kome — the  studio  of 
the  world — where  they  first  beheld  the  masterpieces  of  Italy, 
sorely  to  their  humbling. 

In  1736  Allan  Eamsay,  settled  in  his  Luckenbooth  book- 
shop, wrote  to  his  friend  John  Smibert — another  of  Scotland's 
deserting  painters :  "  My  son  Allan  has  been  pursuing  his 
studies  since  he  was  a  dozen  years  auld,  has  been  with  Mr. 
Haffridg  in  London  for  two  years ;  has  been  since  at  home 
painting  like  a  Eaphael,  sets  off  for  the  Seat  of  the  Beast 
beyond  the  Alps.  I  am  sweer  to  part  with  him."  ^  So  young 
Allan  went  off  to  Eome,  where  the  Scots  classic  painter  Gavin 
Hamilton — another  deserter — received  all  his  young  country- 
men with  welcome.  In  a  few  years  Ramsay  returned  to  Edin- 
burgh to  paint  admirable  portraits  full  of  veracity,  expres- 
sion, and  force,  as  well  as  to  become  a  man  of  letters  and  of 

^  The  Gentle  Shepherd,  with  Illustrations  of  the  Scenery,  1814,  i.  64, 


CO UNTR  Y  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR  Y  MANNERS        69 

fashion.  Judges,  lords,  and  gentry  he  Ihnned,  and  his 
portraits  perpetuate  the  notable  features  of  a  generation  before 
Eaeburn  practised  his  skill.  But  what  was  there  in  Scotland 
to  satisfy  a  man  of  ambition  ?  The  demand  for  pictures  was 
limited  and  the  pay  was  poor.  When  a  laird  had  his  own 
portrait  and  his  wife's  taken,  or  a  lord  of  session  was  depicted, 
complacent  in  his  new  robes,  his  desire  to  encourage  art 
was  satiated,  for  low  ceiKngs  and  small  rooms  gave  little  accom- 
modation for  frames,  especially  in  Edinburgh  flats.  So  Scot- 
land again  lost  in  1756  its  only  competent  artist,  and  London 
absorbed  the  neat,  keen-eyed,  hot-tempered,  genial  Eamsay — 
a  scholar,  a  linguist,  a  conversationalist,  whom  even  Johnson 
praised  in  spite  of  his  being  a  Scotsman,  who  gained  success, 
becoming  master  painter  to  George  III.,  whose  frequent  portraits 
he  painted,  and  whose  repast  of  boiled  mutton  and  turnips  he 
ate  when  his  royal  master  had  finished,  while  Queen  Charlotte 
conversed  in  German  with  her  favourite  polyglot  artist.^ 

When  Scotland  was  in  an  utterly  forlorn  state  as  regards 
art,  a  project  unhappily  entered  into  the  heads  of  worthy 
Andrew  and  Eobert  Foulis,  most  excellent  printers,  whose 
scholarly  editions  of  classics  in  beautiful  type  and  accurate 
texts  were  winning  honour  to  them.  This  project  was  to 
found  a  great  school  of  art  in  Glasgow — the  seat  of  tobacco, 
tape,  and  the  sugar  trade.  In  their  pilgrimages  abroad  to  visit 
libraries  and  examine  editions  of  classics,  they  collected  some 
pictures  which  the  good  artless  men  thought  rare  bargains  of 
great  value ;  they  secured  a  room  in  the  hospitable  precincts 
of  the  college ;  they  hired  two  or  three  teachers,  and  opened 
their  academy  to  develop  art  in  1753.  Some  scholars  did 
come  to  learn  designing,  and  made  copies  of  pictures  and 
"  bustoes,"  which  were  sold  to  encourage  native  talent.  Un- 
luckily, tobacco  lords  cared  little  for  fine  arts ;  pictures  did  not 
go  off;  and  students  did  not  come  in.  Though  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  estimable  founders  was  hard  to  damp,  the  crisis  came  at 
last  to  this  misplaced  venture.  Among  the  closing  scenes  of 
the  tragedy  was  the  spectacle  of  a  waggon  lumbering  along  the 
road  to  London  in  1775,  accompanied  by  Eobert  Foulis  (his 

^  Cuniiingliam's  British  Painters,  v.  34  ;  Chambers'  Eminent  Scotsmen  {s%ib 
voce). 


70       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

brother,  fortunately,  was  dead),  and  his  faithful  man  beside  him, 
escorting,  as  it  had  been  a  hearse,  the  freight  of  spurious 
masterpieces  and  unsold  copies.  After  an  Exhibition,  which 
had  scarcely  a  spectator,  there  followed  the  auction  by  the 
remorseless  hammer,  which  knocked  down  for  fabulously  low 
prices  cherished  "  Eaphaels  "  that  Eaphael  never  saw.  Then 
came  the  end.  Eobert  Foulis  felt  the  hand  of  death  upon 
him,  and  when  Dr.  William  Hunter,  to  cheer  his  forlorn  friend, 
had  offered  to  get  the  king  to  see  the  Exhibition,  he  answered, 
"  It  doesn't  signify.  I  shall  soon  be  in  the  presence  of  the 
King  of  kings " — which  was  true,  for  the  poor  man  fell  ill 
and  died  in  Edinburgh  as  he  was  proceeding  on  his  disconsolate 
journey  home.^ 

Still,  one  or  two  of  the  lads  who  had  sat  in  the  benches 
of  the  now  dismantled  academy  were  to  win  some  little  fame. 
There  was  James  Tassie,  the  stone-mason,  who  learned  modelling, 
and   afterwards   made  his  name   by  his  charming   medallion 
portraits  and  beautiful  imitations  of  gems  and  cameos  in  his 
secret  "  white  enamel  paste."     There,  too,  David  Allan,  the 
queer,  mean-looking,  pock-pitted,  threadbare  lad,  served  seven 
years'  apprenticeship,  who  after  his  return  from  Eome  turned 
his  hand  to  depicting  rural  life.     His  illustrations  of  Scots 
songs,  which  delighted  Burns,  and  his  drawings  for  the  Gentle 
Shepherd,  giving  admirable  representations  of  cottage  interiors, 
of  rural  ways  and  humours  and  habits,  displayed  a  genuine 
Hogarthian  humour,  with  such  total  absence  of  grace  that,  as 
Allan  Cunningham  says,  his  shepherdesses  were  more  adapted 
to  scare  crows  than  to  allure  lovers.^     For  this  almost  for- 
gotten artist  can  be  claimed  the  merit  of  being  the  earliest  of 
Scottish  genre  painters,  the  precursor  of  those  delineators  of 
domestic  scenes  and  humours  of  whom  Wilkie  was  the  greatest. 
In  the  now  deserted  rooms  for  a  time  had  also  studied 
Alexander     Eunciman,     who    after     his    return    from    Eome 
abandoned   his   beloved    landscape -painting,   because    no    one 
cared  for  it,  and  became  as  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  favourite 

^  Notices  of  Literary  Hist,  of  Glasgow  (Maitland  Club),  p.  40. 

2  Cunningliam's  British  Painters,  vi.  21  ;  The  Geiitle  She2ihenl,  w-ith  Illus- 
trations of  the  Scenery,  an  Appendix  containing  the  Memoirs  of  David  Allan, 
the  Scots  Hogarth,  2  vols.  1814. 


CO  UNTR  V  SOCIE TY  AND  CO  UNTR  Y  MANNERS        7  r 

classic  historical  scenes  which  then  filled  acres  of  canvas  in 
the  Eoyal  Academy,  but  found  place  in  few  country  houses  in 
Scotland ;  for  what  mortal  could  long  endure  the  sight  upon 
his  walls  of  "  Sigismunda  weeping  over  the  heart  of  Tancred," 
or  "  Job  in  distress,"  or  that  theme  on  which  every  historical 
painter  of  the  day  tried  his  skill,  "  Agrippina  landing  with 
tlie  ashes  of  Germanicus  "  ?  Into  Eunciman's  studio  men  of 
letters  and  law — Eobertson  and  Kames  and  Monboddo — loved 
to  come  to  chat  and  watch  at  work  the  exuberant  man 
brimming  over  with  interest  in  everything.  Ambitious  of 
emulating  the  work  of  Michel  Angelo  in  the  Sistine  Chapel, 
he  set  to  work  to  paint  for  his  friend  Sir  John  Clerk  of 
Penicuik  scenes  from  Ossian,  which  since  1762  kindled  admira- 
tion in  enthusiastic  bosoms  for  the  mist  and  mystery  of  the 
north,  the  moaning  ocean  on  the  wind-swept  Isles,  the  magni- 
loquent, shadowy,  and  melancholy  heroes.  The  scaffold  was 
raised,  and  there  he  lay,  lying  in  painful  postures — contracting 
a  disease  from  which  he  ultimately  died  one  day  as  he  entered 
his  house  in  1785. 

Portrait-painters  were  usually  sure  of  customers  in  Edinburgh; 
and  amongst  others  David  Martin,  who  has  perpetuated  for  us 
the  features  of  Jupiter  Carlyle,  Lord  Kames,  Hume,  Benjamin 
Franklin,  was  painting  and  engraving  for  forty  years.  But  in 
1785  another  artist  arose  to  eclipse  all  rivals — Henry  Eaeburn, 
who  left  his  goldsmith's  shop  to  study  design  entirely  by  him- 
self ;  for  Martin  would  not  show  him  how  to  mix  colours,  though 
he  lent  him  pictures  to  copy.  When  only  twenty-two  he  began 
to  practise  his  art,  and  everything  prospered  with  the  "  lad  in 
George  Street,"  as  envious  ]\Iartin  spoke  of  him  with  a  snarl, 
from  the  time  he  set  up  his  easel  and  the  young  pretty  widow 
called  to  have  her  portrait  taken,  with  the  result  that  in  a 
month's  time  she  made  an  admirable  picture  and  began  to  be 
an  admirable  wife.  To  the  studio  in  George  Street,  and  after- 
wards in  York  Place,  what  a  wonderful  succession  and  variety 
of  customers  came  to  sit  upon  that  high  platform  on  which  the 
painter  placed  them,  and  felt  his  dark  keen  eye  fixed  on  them 
as  he  stepped  back  to  contemplate  his  subject,  resting  his  chin 
on  his  fingers,  as  he  stands  in  his  own  portrait,  before  apply- 
ing his  swift,  unerring  strokes  to  the  canvas  !     Everybody  who 


72       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

was  anybody  sat  to  him — nobles  and  gentlemen  to  add  to  a 
family  gallery,  rubicund  judges,  shrewd  writers  and  advocates 
whose  faces  bespoke  "an  excellent  practice,"  ministers  and 
professors  of  note,  men  of  letters  and  science.  Highland  chiefs 
"  all  plaided  and  plumed,"  young  ladies  who  still  were  beauties 
and  old  ladies  who  had  once  been  toasts,  from  whose  "  speak- 
ing likenesses "  one  almost  expects  to  hear  the  good  Scots 
tongue  speak  forth.^ 

Yet  another  artist  has  his  distinct  place  in  the  social  life 
of  Scotland — the  first  of  its  landscape-painters.  Alexander 
Nasmyth  had  returned  to  his  native  Edinburgh  from  Eamsay's 
studio,  where  he  had  been  one  of  the  five  assistants  that  filled 
in  the  details  and  backgrounds  for  the  busy  court  portrait-painter. 
Of  course  he  took  to  painting  portraits,  and  to  him  we  owe  the 
precious  sketch  of  his  friend  Eobert  Burns  in  1789.  He 
had,  however,  cause  to  abandon  that  department.  His  political 
opinions  were  pronounced — the  keen  "  rights  of  men  "  type  of 
the  day — and  he  lacked  the  gift  of  holding  his  tongue. 
Naturally,  douce  citizens  and  Tory  lairds  were  wroth  at  listen- 
ing to  wild  utterances,  which  they  could  not  resent  without  spoil- 
ing their  reposeful  expression.  Nasmyth,  therefore,  prudently 
turned  from  depicting  the  features  of  customers  whom  he 
made  irascible  to  painting  the  face  of  nature,  which  betrays 
no  emotion.  It  was  a  well-timed  change.  Appreciation  of 
beauty  and  wildness  in  scenery  was  springing  up.  No  longer 
would  anybody  like  painter  Northcote  pass  over  Mt.  Cenis 
with  night-cowl  drawn  tight  over  his  eyes,  not  caring  for  one 
glimpse  of  Alpine  glory.  Gray,  the  poet,  returned  from  his 
Highland  tour  in  1765  proclaiming  that  "  the  mountains  were 
ecstatic  and  ought  to  be  visited  once  a  year.  None  but  these 
monstrous  children  of  God  know  how  to  join  so  much  beauty 
with  so  much  horror."  ^  By  1 7  8  0  Englishmen  were  touring 
through  Scotland,  and  knew  more  of  its  lochs  and  mountains, 
which  Johnson  had  called  "  protuberances,"  than  Scotsmen 
themselves.  Country  gentlemen  were  busy  improving  their 
grounds  and  adding  picturesqueness  to  their  homes,  and  with 
this  taste  Nasmyth's  landscapes  harmonised.     Noblemen  and 

^  Cunningham's  British  Painters,  v.  204  ;  Chambers'  Eminent  Scotsmen. 
"  Grays  Works  (Gosse's  edition),  vol.  iii.  p.  223. 


Bsiiie„^aaaitM£iiM:ttmtmaem 


CO UNTR  V  SOCIETY  AND  CO UNTR  V  MANNERS        73 

lairds  consulted  him  how  to  set  out  their  "  policies "  to 
advantage,  and  no  better  counsellor  could  be  got  than  he  who 
had  inherited  from  his  father  the  taste  of  an  architect,  and 
transmitted  to  his  son  James,  the  notable  engineer,  his  skill 
as  mechanic.  When  the  Duke  of  AthoU  consulted  him  as  to 
how  he  could  get  trees  planted  in  inaccessible  spots,  he  got  tin 
canisters,  filled  them  with  seed,  and  fired  them  from  a  little 
cannon  towards  the  required  nooks,  where  they  sprang  up  and 
in  time  became  stalwart  trees.^ 

For  the  first  time  in  many  a  town  and  country  house  were 
to  be  seen  pictures  of  Scots  woodland  or  mountain  scenery, 
due  to  the  hand  of  Nasmyth,  who  founded  a  school  of  land- 
scape-painting which  had  true  scholars  in  his  own  son  Patrick 
and  Thomson  of  Duddingston.^ 

Still,  notwithstanding  these  efforts  to  spread  art  and  increase 
taste,  when  the  next  century  began  the  public  were  without 
interest  in  it ;  and  it  is  said  there  was  no  market  for  any 
pictures  except  portraits  by  Eaeburn.^ 


After  this  digression  into  the  region  of  art  we  return  to  the 
common  ways  and  manners  of  society,  in  which  time  was 
working  many  a  change. 

Ladies,  after  the  middle  of  the  century,  were  altering 
greatly  in  habits,  taste,  and  dress.^  By  the  more  easy  and 
frequent  intercourse  with  towns,  city  modes  were  passing  into 
every  rural  mansion.  The  national  plaid  was  abandoned  about 
1750  and  no  longer  graced  their  forms  and  piquantly  hid 
their  features ;  and  in  chip  hats,  toupees,  and  sacques,  they 
followed  the  style  of  Edinburgh,  which  had  been  copied  from 
London.  Education  changed  slowly,  and  they  still  left  school 
ignorant   of  geography,   history,   and   grammar,   though   they 

'  Autobiography  of  Janies  Nusvvjth,  edited  by  Smiles. 

-  Baird's  Life  of  Thomson  of  Duddingston  ;  Brydall's  Hist. 

'  Cockburn's  Memorials,  p.  244. 

•*  In  1750  there  were  only  six  milliners  in  Edinburffh. — Ramsay's  Scotland 
and  Scotsmen.  Two  sisters  of  Thomson,  author  of  the  Seasons,  had  become 
mantua  makers. 


74       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

spelt  more  respectably  and  spoke  a  little  less  broadly.  They 
might  know  occasionally  a  little  Italian — ^just  enough  to  mis- 
understand it.^  They  were  deft  with  their  fingers  at  sewing 
cambric  and  plying  their  tambouring.  The  old  instruments 
of  the  mothers  or  grandmothers,  viol  and  virginal,  remained 
as  lumber  in  the  garrets,  and  they  played  on  the  harpsichord 
and  spinet,  to  which  they  sang  their  plaintive  Jacobite  songs 
and  made  their  audience  weep  in  sentiment  over  Prince 
Charlie,  who  was  busy  drinking  himself  to  death  at  Eome. 
But  after  the  pianoforte  was  introduced  into  England  in  1767, 
that  instrument  took  the  place  of  the  dear  old  jingling  wires 
of  the  spinet,  from  which  the  nimble  reels  and  strathspeys 
had  come  with  infinite  spirit  to  stir  feet  to  merry  measure 
at  the  unceremonious  gatherings  in  many  a  country  house, 
when,  after  the  dance  was  over,  half  a  dozen  damsels  would 
sleep  together  in  some  small  bedroom,  and  the  men  in 
dishevelment  were  content  to  pass  the  night  in  a  barn  or 
stable  loft.  Now  spinet  and  harpsichord  were  sold  at  roups 
for  a  few  shillings  to  tradesmen  and  farmers  for  their  daughters 
to  practise  on,  or  to  act  as  sideboards.  Now  to  the  piano 
were  sung  other  songs — those  which,  united  to  delightful  airs, 
came  with  a  rush  of  feminine  lyric  genius  from  Lady  Anne 
Lindsay,  Miss  Elliot,  Mrs.  Cockburn,  and  Mrs.  Hunter — the 
two  "  sets "  of  "  Flowers  of  the  Forest,"  "  Auld  Eobin  Gray," 
''  My  mother  bids  me  bind  my  hair,"  which  charmed  the  tea- 
parties  when  the  century  was  old.  From  the  society  balls 
the  minuet  had  gone  with  the  primmer  public  manners  of  the 
past,  and  the  reel  and  country  dance  had  become  popular  to 
suit  a  freer  age. 

Observers  of  manners  and  lovers  of  the  past  were  noticing 
and  deploring  the  rise  of  new  and  livelier  ways.  Of  old  there 
had  been  amid  woman-kind  a  dignity  and  stateliness  in  deport- 
ment, begotten  of  the  severe  discipline  of  the  nursery,  the 
rigour  of  the  home,  and  precision  of  those  gentlewomen  of  high 

^  At  the  end  of  the  century  Italian  was  often  made  one  of  the  items  of 
young  ladies'  accomplishments.  About  1775  the  young  ladies  of  Cask  were 
taught  by  a  governess,  who  was  hired  at  a  salary  of  from  10  to  12  guineas  a 
year  to  impart  tlie  practice  of  "ye  needle,  principles  of  religion  and  loyalty, 
■a  good  carriage,  and  talking  tolerable  good  English."  -Tytler's  Songstresses  of 
Scotland,  ii.  115. 


lH|ll|lll.l«ll,HapiWI»!—IIW< 


COUNTRY  SOCIETY  AND  COUNTRY  MANNERS        75 

"birth  who  taught  in  high  flats  all  feminine  accomplishments. 
If  they  snuffed  it  was  with  formality ;  if  they  spoke  broad 
Scots  it  was  without  vulgarity ;  if  they  said  things — and  they 
did  say  them — that  sounded  improper  to  a  new  generation, 
their  behaviour  was  a  model  of  propriety,  for  they  had  been 
reared  sternly.-^  By  1780,  when  these  ladies  had  become 
frail  and  wrinkled  and  old,  the  austerity  of  home  training,  the 
aloofness  of  parent  and  children,  so  painfully  characteristic  of 
former  days  in  Scotland,"  had  passed  off,  to  the  regret  of  many 
old-fashioned  folk.  Dr.  Gregory,  an  admirable  physician,  and 
without  doubt  an  admirable  father,  spoke  of  these  changes 
with  sorrow :  "  Every  one  who  can  remember  a  few  years  back 
will  be  sensible  of  a  very  striking  change  in  the  attention  and 
respect  formerly  paid  by  gentlemen  to  ladies.  Their  drawing- 
rooms  are  deserted,  and  after  dinner  the  gentlemen  are 
impatient  till  they  retire.  The  behaviour  of  ladies  in  the  last 
age  was  reserved  and  stately  ;  it  would  now  be  considered 
ridiculously  stiff  and  formal.  It  certainly  had  the  effect  of 
making  them  respected."  ^  Probably  to  many  to-day  the  social 
ease,  whose  advent  was  so  lamented,  would  seem  after  all  stiff 
as  starch  and  buckram. 

^  On  the  tastes  and  topics  of  ladies,  about  1750,  see  letters  concerning  horse- 
breeding  by  a  lady  of  rank  in  Dunbar's  Social  Life  of  Morayshire.  Speaking 
of  ladies  previous  to  1730,  Miss  Mure  says:  "The  ladies  were  indelicate  and 
vulgar  in  their  manners,  and  even  after  '45  they  did  not  change  much  and 
•u-ere  indelicate  in  married  ones. "  —  Caldwell  Pajxrs,  i.  262.  She  speaks  of 
young  ladies  in  the  boisterous  merriment  of  a  marriage  or  christening  getting 
"  intoxicated"  ;  but  perhaps  there  was  a  milder  Scots  meaning  in  the  word,  for 
we  find  James  Boswell  with  subtle  refinement  explaining  to  his  friend  Temple, 
' '  I  did  not  get  drunk.  I  was,  however,  intoxicated. " — Letters  of  Boswell, 
p.  209. 

-  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  ii.  304  ;  Dennistoun's  Life  of  Sir  R.  Strange;  Lady 
Jlinto's  Life  of  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  i.  15  ;  Fergusson's  Henry  Erskine,  p.  62. 
:Miss  Violet  JIacSliake  in  Miss  Ferricr's  Marriage  expresses  these  old  family  rela- 
tionships in  a  forcible  way,  strikingly  like  that  of  Miss  Mure  of  Caldwell  {Caldwell 
Pajjers,  i.  260) :  "  I'  my  grandfather's  time,  as  I  have  heard  him  tell,  ilkamaister 
0'  a  faamily  had  his  ain  sate  in  his  ain  hoose  ;  aye,  an'  sat  wi'  his  hat  on  his  heed 
afore  the  best  o'  the  land  ;  an'  had  his  ain  dish  an'  wus  aye  helpit  first  an' 
keepit  up  his  autliority  as  a  man  should  do.  Paurents  were  paurents  then — 
bairns  daurdna'  set  up  their  gabs  afore  them  as  they  dae  noo." — ii.  126  (1818). 
For  strangely  reserved  terms  between  Joanna  Baillie's  parents  and  their  family, 
see  Tytler  and  Watson's  Songstresses  of  Scotland,  ii.  p.  183. 

^  A  Father's  Legacy  to  his  Daughter,  1774. 


76       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  Y 

Whether  the  old  days  were  better  than  the  new  may  be 
a  matter  of  doubt.  Englishmen  found  Scots  ladies  charm- 
ingly frank  and  natural,  and  more  intelligible  than  their 
elders,  as  they  gave  up  broad  Scots  words  and  retained  only 
the  Scots  cadence ;  ^  but  certainly  the  former  school  of  gentle- 
women was  far  more  picturesque  and  more  quaint,  more 
interesting  to  look  at  and  more  entertaining  to  listen  to. 
They  might  be  poor— they  usually  were ;  they  might  as 
dowagers  live,  like  Lady  Lovat,  in  a  small  flat  on  £140  a  year, 
and  be  able,  like  that  high-born  and  high-residenced  dame,  to 
put  only  a  penny  or  half-penny  in  the  "  brod  "  on  Sabbath 
when  they  went  to  the  fashionable  Tron  Kirk  of  Edinburg^h  ; 
they  might  go  out  in  pattens  and  bargain  in  emphatic  ver- 
nacular over  a  fishwife's  creel  at  the  "  stair  foot,"  and  be  lighted 
home  with  a  lantern  to  the  "  close  mouth  "  when  the  tea-party 
was  over,  to  save  sixpence  for  a  sedan-chair  ;  but  in  city  and 
jointure  houses  in  country  towns,  with  their  tea  and  card  parties, 
they  wondrously  maintained  their  dignity.  They  spoke  of  things 
with  blandness  on  which  a  reticent  age  keeps  silence  ;  they  read 
and  spoke  freely  of  Tom  Jones  and  Aphra  Behn's  plays,  which  the 
young  generation  would  have  shut  with  a  slam  of  disapproval, 
or  hid  under  the  sofa  cushion  when  a  visitor  came  in ;  ^  they 
punctuated  their  caustic  sayings  with  a  big  pinch  of  snuff, 

^  The  Scots  tongue  was  no  longer  heard  in  its  purity  and  its  breadth  from 
the  lips  of  the  younger  people  in  1774.  Speaking  of  this  date,  Dr.  Johnson 
writes  :  "  The  conversation  of  the  Scots  grows  every  day  less  displeasing  to  the 
English  ear.  Their  peculiarities  wear  fast  away  ;  their  dialect  is  likely  to 
become  in  half  a  century  provincial  and  rustic  even  to  themselves.  The  gi'eat, 
the  learned,  the  ambitious,  and  the  vain  all  cultivate  the  English  phrases  and 
the  English  pronunciation.  In  splendid  companies  Scots  is  not  much  heard, 
except  now  and  then  from  an  old  lady." — Journey  to  the  Western  Islands,  1791. 
It  is  evident  that  those  who  met  Dr.  Samuel  tried  to  speak  their  best  and  not 
their  usual.  "Scots  literati  write  English  as  a  foreign  language,  though  Edin- 
burgh society  manifest  an  anxiety  to  rid  themselves  of  Scots  accent." — P.  22. 
Topham's  Letters,  1776. 

-  When  old  Miss  Keith  of  Ravelston  got  at  her  request  Mrs.  Behn's  works  to 
read,  she  returned  them  with  the  words:  "Take  back  your  bonny  Mrs.  Behn, 
and  if  you  will  take  my  advice  you  will  put  her  in  the  fire  ;  for  I  find  it  impos- 
sible to  get  througli  the  first  novel.  But  is  it  not  an  odd  thing  that  I,  an  old 
woman  of  eighty  and  upwards,  sitting  alone,  feel  myself  ashamed  to  read  a  book 
which  sixty  years  ago  I  have  heard  read  aloud  for  the  amusement  of  large  circles 
consisting  of  the  first  and  most  creditable  society  in  Loudon  ?" — Life  of  Sir  TF. 
Scott,  vi.  406. 


CO  UNTR  V  SOCIE TY  AND  CO  UNTR  V  MANNERS        7 7 

and  sometimes  confirmed  them  with  a  rattling  oath.^  But,  for 
all,  they  were  as  upright  as  they  were  downright ;  their  manners 
were  stiff  as  their  stomachers,  and  their  morals  as  erect  as 
their  figures,  which  they  kept  bolt  upright  without  touching 
the  backs  of  the  chairs — for  so  they  had  been  disciplined  under 
the  tuition  of  the  Honourable  Mrs.  Ogilvie,  that  sister-in-law 
of  Lord  Seafield  whose  boarding-school  was  the  pink  of  feminine 
perfection. 

Changing  times  were  affecting  the  men  also  ;  the  uncouth- 
ness  and  provincialism  were  disappearing  from  their  manners, 
their  attire,  and  their  speech  ;  but  some  habits  of  the  past  were 
becoming,  as  in  English  society,  worse  instead  of  wiser. 
Drinking  had  always  been  a  favourite  occupation.  At  dinners, 
public  and  private,  solemn  and  genial,  at  christenings,  wed- 
dings, and  funerals,  they  drank  with  equal  vigour  and  perfect 
impartiality.  When  the  chief  beverage  was  ale  the  effects  were 
not  so  disastrous  or  so  lasting  ;  when  dinners  were  at  one  o'clock 
or  two,  the  drinking  could  not  be  prolonged,  for  the  business  of 
the  afternoon  hindered  protracted  sittings.  But  when  dinner 
hours  advanced  to  three  or  four  o'clock,  and  they  took 
claret,  and  still  worse  when  all  drank  port,  the  parties 
continued  at  the  board  till  late  at  night,  in  genial  company, 
and  he  was  reckoned  a  poor  host  indeed  who  allowed  his 
friends  to  leave  the  dining-room  sober.  In  these  circles  the 
wine  was  seldom  placed  on  the  table  at  dinner,  but  required 
each  time  to  be  called  for,  and  then  it  was  drunk  with  the 
formula  of  each  gentleman  asking  another  to  drink  with  him. 
This  was  the  invariable  process  gone  through :  there  was  the 
glance  across  the  table  to  a  friend,  the  pantomimic  lifting  of 
the  glass,  the  inviting  words,  "  A  glass  of  wine  with  you,  sir  ?  " 
and  congenially  they  drank  each  other's  health.  Such  was  the 
custom  in  good  society,  though  not  in  the  very  highest  life. 

1  Of  the  vigour  of  speech  with  which  genuine  ladies  of  old  times  expressed 
themselves,  many  stories  are  told  ;  see  above,  p.  29. — Dennistoun's  Life  of  Sir 
Ji.  Strange,  ii.  213,  A  dame  of  distinguished  family  of  that  period  when  driving 
home  one  night  was  awakened  by  the  carriage  being  stopped  by  the  coachman, 
who  told  her  he  had  seen  "a  fa'in'  star."  "And  what  hae  ye  to  do  wi'  the 
stars  I  wad  like  to  ken  ?"  said  his  mistress.  "Drive  on  this  moment  and  be 
damned  to  you" — adding  in  a  lower  tone,  as  was  her  wont,  "  as  Sir  John  wad 
ha'  said  if  he  had  been  alive,  honest  man." — Stirling-Maxwell's  Miscellaneous 
Essays,  1891,  p.  160. 


78       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

When  the  table  was  cleared  of  viands,  and  the  glasses  once- 
more  were  set  on  the  shining  mahogany,  each  person  proposed 
the  health  of  every  other  person  present  severally,  and  thus  if 
there  were  ten  guests  there  were  ninety  healths  drunk,  with 
serious  consequences  to  the  health  of  all.  There  were  also 
rounds  of  toasts,  each  gentleman  naming  an  absent  lady,  each 
lady  an  absent  gentleman.  Next  followed  "  sentiments," 
as  another  excuse  for  further  imbibing.  Each  person  was 
called  on  in  turn  to  propose  a  wish  called  a  "  sentiment " — it 
might  be  some  crisp  sentence,  a  poetic  phrase,  a  jovial  proverb, 
or,  as  generally,  a  fatuous  moral  reflection.  Each  guest  pro- 
posed such  a  fine  utterance  as  "  May  the  hand  of  charity  wipe 
the  tears  of  sorrow,"  "  May  the  pleasures  of  the  night  bear  the 
reflection  of  the  morning,"  or,  in  homely  vernacular,  the  senti- 
ment might  be,  "  May  waur  ne'er  be  amang  us,"  "  May  the  wind 
of  adversity  ne'er  blaw  open  our  door,"  and  then  followed 
applause  and  a  drink.  Practised  diners-out  had  their  own 
invariable  sentences,  which  were  loyally  reserved  to  them  as  a 
favourite  song  to  a  singer.  As  every  one  must  take  part  in 
the  round  of  sentiments — the  youngest,  the  shyest,  the  least 
inventive — it  was  an  agonising  ordeal  to  many.  After  the 
ladies  had  left  the  room  the  conviviality,  with  jest  and  story 
and  song,  began  with  renewed  vigour ;  so  that  gentlemen  did 
not  join  the  ladies,  not  being  producible  in  the  drawing-room.^ 
That  in  these  days  and  nights  of  hard  potations  country  guests 
found  their  way  home  through  pitch-dark  rugged  roads,  shows 
that  the  horses  were  more  rational  than  their  riders.  Fortun- 
ately, by  the  end  of  the  century  society  became  more  sensible 
and  less  noisy.  The  deplorably  idiotic  custom  of  "  sentiment- 
giving  "  was  given  up,  to  the  intense  relief  of  old  and  young, 
and  incessant  toasts  were  only  lingering  in  the  practice  of 
stupid  old-fashioned  veterans  in  geniality.  The  hard  drinking 
considerably  sobered  down  in  Scotland  as  in  England,  and 
the  most  arduous  feats  of  a  bibulous  generation  had  become 
memories,  leaving,  however,  their  most  vivid  traces  in  features, 
as  of  Henry  Dundas,  "  tinged  with  convivial  purple." 

^  Ramsay's  Reminiscences,   1863,  pp.   67-72  ;    Cockburn's  Memorials  of  his 
Times,  p.  35  ;  Gentleman' s  Magazine,  1766  ;  Fergussou's  Henry  Erskine  and  Ms-- 
Times,  p.  213  ;  Strang's  Clubs  of  Glasgow. 


CO  UNTR  V  SOCIE TY  AND  CO  UNTR  Y  MANNERS        79 

In  spite  of  the  lapse  of  time  and  disappearance  of  many 
old  homely  traits  of  living,  to  the  end  there  were  many  quaint 
aspects  of  the  past  in  Scots  country  life.  The  pedlars  still 
came  round  with  their  packs,  though  no  longer  had  the 
lady  any  yarn  of  her  own  spinning  to  exchange  for  webs  of 
linen ;  the  survivors  of  the  old  gaberlunzies,  clad  in  their  blue 
gowns,  called  still  with  wallets  over  their  shoulders  to  receive 
meat  and  meal  at  the  door,  and  retail  gossip  and  stories  in  the 
kitchen.  There  was  a  kindly  attachment  of  domestics  who 
served  for  small  wages,  and,  achieving  longevity,  passed  down  as 
heirlooms  in  a  family  through  two  generations,  living  and  dying 
as  the  familiar  and  garrulous  tyrants  of  a  household. 

Scottish — ineffaceably  Scottish — remained  many  types  of 
society,  especially  in  the  country  houses  and  manses,  in  spite 
of  the  advent  of  modern  innovations,  and  that  frequent  inter- 
course with  the  wider  world  which  was  fast  polishing  the 
race  into  conventional  shape.  In  no  other  country,  surely, 
did  there  exist  such  marked  individuality  of  character.  Each 
one  might  retain  his  or  her  peculiarity,  his  or  her  whim  of 
mind,  oddity  of  life,  or  fancy  of  dress,  in  country  seat  or  city 
flat.  This  striking  originality  of  nature  was  found  alike  in 
judge  and  laird  and  minister,  and  in  their  spouses.  The 
country  swarmed  with  "  originals  "  in  every  rank,  in  town  and 
village.  One  can  see  what  special  personality  there  was  as 
we  look  at  sketches,  which  seem  to  us  caricatures,  of  Edin- 
burgh notables,  etched  by  John  Kay  the  barber  so  cleverly, 
which,  any  time  after  1783,  when  stuck  up  in  his  little  shop 
window  in  Parliament  Square,  attracted  in  the  morning  groups 
of  citizens,  who  recognised  with  laughter  some  well-known 
local  figure  with  each  peculiarity  emphasised,  and  pronounced 
every  quaint  likeness  "  capital " — except  their  own.  One 
meets  with  these  distinct  characteristics  in  those  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  the  decline  of  the  century  who  live  in  Lord 
Cockburn's  charming  pages.  One  notes  them  in  the  portraits 
and  the  stories  of  the  bench  of  judges — a  veritable  menagerie 
of  oddities,  chokeful  of  whims,  absurdities,  and  strange  idiosyn- 
crasies, and  of  queer  humour,  conscious  or  unconscious,  in 
dignitaries  without  dignity.  Where  else  could  attain  to  high 
position  and  exist  in  sedate  and  sensible  company  a  Braxfield, 


8o       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  Y 

a  Polkemmet,  an  Eskgrove,  and  a  Hermand  ?  The  old  race, 
with  their  old-world  ways,  which  was  at  last  leaving  the 
earth,  luckily  survived  long  enough  to  be  portrayed  by  the 
master  touch  of  Sir  Henry  Eaeburn,  from  whose  canvasses  so 
many  faces  with  distinctively  Scots  features  and  qualities — 
gentlemen  in  their  high  collars,  ruffled  shirts,  and  powdered 
hair  or  wigs,  and  dames  in  old  picturesque  attire  of  a  bygone 
day — look  down  from  the  walls  of  many  mansions  upon  a  later 
and  a  conventional  generation.  It  is  difficult  to  say  which  was 
more  fortunate — the  sitters  who  had  such  a  superb  artist  to 
paint  them,  or  the  artist  who  had  such  admirable  figures  to 
-copy. 


CHAPTER    III 

TOWN    LIFE EDINBURGH 


The  height  of  Edinburgh's  glory  was  before  the  Union  of 
1707,  in  the  days  when  meetings  of  the  Scots  Parliament 
drew  to  the  capital  nobles  and  persons  of  quality  from  every 
county,  when  periodically  the  city  was  full  of  the  richest, 
most  notable,  and  best-bred  people  in  the  land,  and  the  dingy 
High  Street  and  Canongate  were  brightened  by  gentlemen  in 
their  brave  attire,  by  ladies  rustling  in  their  hoops,  brocade 
dresses,  and  brilliant  coloured  plaids,  by  big  coaches  gorgeous 
in  their  gilding,  and  lackeys  splendid  in  their  livery.  For 
the  capital  of  a  miserably  poor  country,  Edinburgh  had  then 
a  wonderful  display  of  wealth  and  fashion.  After  1707  all 
this  was  sadly  changed.  "  There  is  the  end  of  an  auld  sang," 
said  Lord  Chancellor  Seafield  in  jest,  whether  light  or  bitter, 
when  the  Treaty  of  Union  was  concluded  ;  but  it  was  a  "  song  " 
that  lingered  long  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  knew  it  well, 
associated  with  a  long  eventful  history,  and  leaving  many 
regretful  memories  behind  it.  No  more  was  the  full  concourse 
of  men  and  ladies  of  high  degree  to  make  society  brilliant 
with  the  chatter  of  right  honourable  voices,  the  glint  of  bright 
eyes  from  behind  the  masks,  the  jostling  of  innumerable  sedan- 
chairs  in  the  busy  thoroughfare,  where  nobles  and  caddies, 
judges  and  beggars,  forced  their  way  with  equal  persistency. 
Instead  of  the  throng  of  145  nobles  and  160  commoners, 
who  often  with  their  families  and  attendants  filled  the  town 
with  life  and  business,  there  went  to  Westminster  the  sixteen 
VOL.  I  6 


82       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

representative  peers  and  sixty  members  of  Parliament,  travelling 
reluctantly  and  tediously  and  expensively  by  the  wretched 
roads,  and  lodging  in  London  at  ruinous  charges — and  all  for 
what  ?  To  find  themselves  obscure  and  unhonoured  in  the 
crowd  of  English  society  and  the  unfamiliar  intrigues  of 
English  politics,  where  they  were  despised  for  their  poverty, 
ridiculed  for  their  speech,  sneered  at  for  their  manners,  and 
ignored  in  spite  of  their  votes  by  the  Ministers  and  Govern- 
ment.^ 

No  wonder  the  Union  was  specially  unpopular  in  Edin- 
burgh, for  it  deprived  the  city  of  national  dignity,  carried 
from  citizens  their  fashions,  and  spoiled  their  trade.  A  gloom 
fell  over  the  Scots  capital :  society  was  dull,  business  was 
duller  still,^  the  lodgings  once  filled  with  persons  of  quality 
were  left  empty — many  decayed  for  want  of  tenants,  some  fell 
almost  into  ruin.^  For  half  a  century  there  was  little  social 
life,  scanty  intellectual  culture,  and  few  traces  of  business 
enterprise.  Gaiety  and  amusement  were  indulged  in  only  under 
the  censure  of  the  Church  and  the  depressing  air  of  that  gloomy 
piety  which  held  undisputed  and  fuller  sway  when  the  influence 
of  rank  and  fashion  no  longer  existed  to  counteract  it. 

^  "It  was  one  of  the  melancholyist  sights  to  any  that  have  any  sense  of  an 
antient  nobility  to  see  them  going  throu  for  votes  and  making  partys,  and  giving 
their  votes  to  others  who  once  had  their  own  vote." — Wodrow's  Analeda,  i.  308. 
"In  the  beginning  of  this  month  [September  1711]  I  hear  a  generall  dissatis- 
faction our  nobility  that  was  at  last  Parliament  have  at  their  treatment  at 
London.  They  complean  they  are  only  made  use  of  as  tools  among  the  English, 
and  cast  by  when  their  party  designs  are  over." — Ibid.  i.  348.  In  great  dudgeon 
in  1712  the  Scots  members  met  together  and  expressed  "high  resentment  of  the 
uncivil  haughty  treatment  they  met  with  from  the  English."— Lockhart's  Papers, 
i.  417.  Principal  Robertson  remarked  to  Dr.  Somerville,  "  '  Our  members  suffered 
immediately  after  the  Union.  The  want  of  the  English  language  and  their 
uncouth  manners  were  much  against  them.  None  of  them  were  men  of  parts, 
and  they  never  opened  their  lips  but  on  Scottish  business,  and  then  said  little." 
Lord  Onslow  (formerly  Speaker)  said  to  him,  '  Dr.  Robertson,  they  were  odd- 
looking  dull  men.  I  remember  them  well.'  " — Somerville's  Ovm,  Life  and  Times, 
p.  271. 

"  Allan  Ramsay's  Poems,  1877,  i.  169.     This  desolation  is  deplored  in  1717  : — 

O  Canongate,  poor  elritch  hole  ! 

What  loss,  what  crosses  dost  thou  thole, 

London  and  death  gar  thee  look  droll. 
And  hing  thy  head. 

"  Elegy  on  Lucky  Wood." 

'  Maitland's  Zfisi.  of  Edinburgh,  1756. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  83 

The  town,  all  enclosed  within  the  city  walls,  chiefly  con- 
sisted of  one  long  street — Canongate  and  High  Street — that 
stretched  a  mile  long  from  Holyrood  to  Castle,  with  the  low- 
lying  parallel  Cowgate.  From  this  main  thoroughfare  branched 
off  innumerable  closes  and  wynds,  in  which  lived  a  dense 
population,  gentle  and  simple.^  There  was  something  im- 
pressive in  the  houses  towering  to  ten  to  twelve  stories  in 
height  of  that  extended  street,  though  its  continuity  was  then 
broken  midway  by  the  ISTetherbow  Port — the  Temple  Bar  of 
Edinburgh — with  its  huge  iron  gateway.  There  was  picturesque- 
ness  in  the  houses,  whose  wooden-faced  gables  were  turned  to 
the  streets,  the  projecting  upper  story  making  piazzas  below. 
But  the  few  visitors  from  England  were  impressed  far  more 
by  its  dirt  and  dingiuess  than  by  its  quaint  beauty,  by  the 
streets  which  were  filthy,  the  causeways  rugged  and  broken, 
the  big  gurglmg  gutters  in  which  ran  the  refuse  of  a  crowded 
population,  and  among  which  the  pigs  poked  their  snouts  in 
grunting  satisfaction  for  garbage.  By  ten  o'clock  each  night 
the  filth  collected  in  each  household  was  poured  from  the  high 
windows,  and  fell  in  malodorous  plash  upon  the  pavement, 
and  not  seldom  on  unwary  passers-by.  At  the  warning  call 
of  "  Gardy  loo  "  {Gardez  Veau)  from  servants  preparing  to  out- 
pour the  contents  of  stoups,  pots,  and  cans,  the  passengers 
beneath  would  agonisingly  cry  out  "  Haud  yer  hand  "  ;  but  too 
often  the  shout  was  unheard  or  too  late,  and  a  drenched  periwig 
and  besmirched  three-cornered  hat  were  borne  dripping  and 
ill-scented  home.  At  the  dreaded  hour  when  the  domestic 
abominations  were  flung  out,  when  the  smells  (known  as  the 
"  flowers  of  Edinburgh  ")  filled  the  air,  the  citizens  burnt  their 
sheets  of  brown  paper  ^  to  neutralise  the  odours  of  the  out- 
side, which  penetrated  their  rooms  within.  On  the  ground 
all  night  the  dirt  and  ordure  lay  awaiting  the  few  and 
leisurely  scavengers,  who  came  nominally  at  seven  o'clock 
next  morning  with  wheel-barrows  to  remove  it.     But  ere  that 

1  Contemporary  descriptions  of  Edinburgh  in  the  first  half  of  the  century  : — 
Journey  through  North  of  England  ami  Scotland  in  1704,  privately  printed  1818  ; 
Macky's  Journey  through  Scotlaml,  1729  ;  Toiir  through  Great  Britain  (begun  by 
Defoe),  iv.  88  ;  Burt's  Letters  from  the  North,  i.  18. 

^  Dealers  in  brown  paper  are  said  to  have  made  uo  little  profit  by  selling 
that  article  for  deodorising  purposes. — Kay's  Udinbicrgh  Portraits,  ii.  4. 


84       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

morning  hour  the  streets  were  becoming  thronged,  for  people 
rose  and  business  began  early,  and  the  shopkeepers,  treading 
cautiously  amid  the  filth  and  over  the  teeming  gutters, 
had  set  forth  to  open  their  booths.  Worst  of  all  was  the 
Sunday,  when  strict  piety  forbade  all  work,  deeming  that 
street -cleansing  was  neither  an  act  of  necessity  nor  one 
of    mercy,    and    required    the    dirt    to    remain    till    Monday 


morning. 


While  high  overhead  towered  the  houses  in  the  air,  many 
in  the  Lawnmarket  had  pillared  piazzas  on  the  ground  floor, 
under  which  were  the  open  booths  where  merchants  showed 
their  wares.  Others  spread  them  on  the  pavement  in  front  of 
their  shops,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  street  near  St.  Giles  were 
open  spaces,  where  on  stalls  the  special  crafts  displayed  their 
goods — woollen  stuffs,  linen,  or  pots — for  the  shops  were  too 
small  and  too  obscure  to  accommodate  or  show  off  the  modest 
stores  their  owners  possessed.  In  the  second  or  third  flat  of 
the  Luckenbooths — a  row  of  tall  narrow  houses  standing  in 
front  of  St.  Giles  and  blocking  the  High  Street — the  best 
tradesmen  had  their  shops,  at  a  rental  of  which  the  very 
highest  rate  was  £15,^  and  not  a  few  of  these  shopkeepers,  not- 
withstanding their  humble  rooms  and  slender  stock  of  goods, 
were  members  of  high  Scots  county  families.  Others  in  good 
position  had  their  business  in  cellars  or  little  chambers  on 
the  basement,  to  which  the  customers  descended  by  worn 
stone  steps,  and  in  which  there  was  little  space  to  turn  and 
little  light  to  see  by.  High  up  in  front  of  the  houses  were 
the  strange  signs,  painted  in  colours  on  black  ground,  each 
tradesman  picturing  thereon  the  article  in  which  he  chiefly 
dealt — the  effigy  of  a  quarter  loaf  showed  that  in  that  flat 
there  traded  a  baker ;  over  the  window  above  a  periwig  adver- 
tised the  presence  of  a  barber ;  the  likeness  of  a  cheese  or 
firkin  of  butter,  of  stays,  or  of  a  petticoat,  pointed  out  to  the 
people  where  were  to  be  got  the  articles  they  sought.^  Few 
goods  were  kept  in  stock,  and  the  customer  for  silk,  cloth,  or 
jewellery   must   give   his   order   betimes,   and   patiently   wait 

^  Chambers'  Traditions  of  Edinburgh,  ii.  352  ;  Wilson's  Memorials  of  Edin- 
burgh. 

-  Topham's  Letters  from  Edinburgh,  p.  28. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  85 

till  it  came  its  slow  course  from  London  by  waggon,  or  from 
Holland  or  Flanders  by  the  boat  to  Leith  three  months 
afterwards. 

In  the  flats  of  the  lofty  houses  in  wynds  or  facing  the 
High  Street  the  populace  dwelt,  who  reached  their  various 
lodgings  by  the  steep  and  narrow  "  scale "  staircases,  which 
were  really  upright  streets.  On  the  same  building  lived 
families  of  all  grades  and  classes,  each  in  their  flats  in  the 
same  stair — the  sweep  and  caddie  in  the  cellars,  poor  mechanics 
in  the  garrets,  while  in  the  intermediate  stories  might  live  a 
noble,  a  lord  of  session,  a  doctor,  or  city  minister,  a  dowager 
countess,  or  writer ;  higher  up,  over  their  heads,  Hved  shop- 
keepers, dancing  masters,  or  clerks.  The  rents  of  these 
mansions  varied  curiously  in  the  same  close,  or  same  stair, 
from  the  cellars  and  garrets  paying  £12  Scots  (18s.)  to  the 
best- class  chambers  paying  £300  Scots  (£20).  But  the 
common  rent  of  a  gentleman's  dwelling  in  the  first  half  of  the 
century  was  £8  or  £10  a  year.  Lord  President  Dundas  used 
to  say  that  even  when  his  income  was  20,000  merks  (£1000), 
he  lived  in  a  house  at  £100  Scots  (£8  :  6  : 8)  and  had  only 
two  roasts  a  week.^  But  living  was  then  plain,  for  incomes 
were  small ;  a  minister  in  his  city  charge  in  the  middle  of  the 
century  and  a  professor  in  the  University  was  thought  well  off 
with  £100  or  £130  a  year,  while  a  lord  of  session  had  a  salary 
of  £500.  The  dark,  narrow  stairs,  with  their  stone  steps 
worn  and  sloping  with  traffic,  were  filthy  to  tread  on ;  and  on 
reaching  the  flat  where  lodged  an  advocate  in  extensive  practice, 
eyes  and  nose  encountered  at  the  door  the  "  dirty  luggies  "  in 
which  were  deposited  the  contents  which,  as  St.  Giles'  bells 
rang  out  ten  o'clock,  were  to  be  precipitated  from  the  windows.^ 
On  the  door,  instead  of  a  bell  or  knocker,  was  a  "  risp,"  which 
consisted  of  a  notched  or  twisted  rod  of  iron  with  a  ring 
attached,   which   the  visitor   rasped  up  and   down   upon    the 

^  Ramsay's  Scotland  and  Scotsmen,  ii.  28. 

-  Tear  through  Great  Britain,  iv.  88  ;  Humphrey  Clinker.  The  Town  Council, 
in  August  1745,  "considering  tliat  inasmuch  as  tlie  several  Acts  on  the  tlirowing 
of  foul  water,  lilth,  dirt,  and  other  nastincss  in  the  high  streets,  vennels,  and 
closes  had  not  been  put  into  due  execution,  direct  each  family  would  now 
provide  vessels  in  the  houses  for  holding  their  excrements  and  foul  water  at 
least  for  48  hours,  under  jjcnalty  of  4s.  Scots." 


86       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

notches  till  the  door  was  opened  by  a  maidservant,  probably 
with  neither  shoes  nor  stockings.^ 

The  rooms  within  were  entered  from  a  narrow,  ill-lighted 
lobby,  and  were  low-ceilinged,  deriving  light  from  the  spare 
windows  which  long  before  sunset  had  faded  into  gloom.  Some- 
times in  the  public  rooms  there  were  signs  of  dignity  and  art, 
in  the  elaborately  stuccoed  ceiling,  the  finely  carved  massive 
marble  mantelpiece,  the  walls  oak-panelled  or  covered  with 
gilt  leather,  with  landscape  panels  from  the  hand  of  "  old 
Norrie,"  the  decorator;  but  usually  the  rooms  were  plain  and 
poor,  crammed  with  furniture  for  which  there  was  no  space. 
The  accommodation  in  a  mansion  of  high  class  would  be  six 
rooms,  including  the  kitchen  and  the  diminutive  closet  for 
private  devotions,  which  was  commonly  found  in  every  house, 
to  allow  the  master  of  the  household  to  retire  at  certain  times 
for  pious  meditation.^  Far  on  in  the  century  in  public 
rooms  there  were  beds,  concealed  during  day  by  curtains, 
where  company  was  received,  as  the  accommodation  was 
awkwardly  spare.^  Partly  from  economy,  partly  from  lack 
of  space,  the  staff  of  servants  was  extremely  limited,  for  often 
one — and  there  was  no  accommodation  for  more  than  two — 

^  Chambers'  Traditions,  i.  236.  Called  a  "craw,"  because  it  made  a  rasping 
noise  like  a  crow. 

Here  in  these  chambers  ever  dull  and  dark 
The  lady  gay  received  her  gayer  spark, 
Who,  clad  in  silken  coat,  with  cautious  tread 
Trembled  at  opening  casements  overhead  ; 
And  when  in  safety  at  her  porch  he  trod. 
He  seized  the  risp  and  rasped  the  twisted  rod. 

"  Ancient  Royalty,"  Sir  Alex.  Boswell's  Poems. 

-  An  oratory  was  a  usual  requisite  in  any  well-appointed  bouse. — Chambers' 
Ancient  Arcliitccture  of  Edinburgh  ;  Mrs.  Calderwood  of  Polton's  Journey. 

'  Lord  Alemoor  (died  1776)  lived  in  a  second  flat  of  Covenant  Close,  with 
five  rooms  and  kitchen,  yet  kept  a  carriage. — Chambers'  Traditions,  i.  186. 
Bruce  of  Kennet,  before  he  rose  to  the  Bench,  lived  in  a  flat  in  Forester's  Wynd, 
Lawnmarket,  at  a  rent  of  £11,  containing  three  rooms  and  a  kitchen  ;  one 
room  was  "my  lady's,"  another  a  consulting  room  or  study,  the  third  their  bed- 
room, while  their  maid  (who  was  their  only  servant  except  the  nurse)  slept  under 
the  kitchen  dresser  ;  their  serving  man  slept  out  of  the  house,  and  the  nurse  and 
children  had  beds  in  the  study,  which  were  removed  during  the  day.  In  later 
days  Lord  Kennet  removed  (1764)  to  a  house  of  great  gentility  of  two  flats  in 
Horse  Wynd. — Chambers'  Minor  Antiquities,  Introd.  xxx.  John  Coutts,  Lord 
Provost,  had  in  1743  his  residence,  his  banking  business,  and  civic  feasts  in 
President's  Close,  High  Street,  consisting  of  five  rooms. — Forbes'  Memoirs  of 
a  Banking  House. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  87 

did  the  work  of  the  household  on  a  wage  of  15s.  a  year  and  a 
gown.  In  the  house  of  a  gentleman  who  luxuriously  kept  his 
carriage  the  servant  slept  under  a  dresser  in  the  kitchen,  while 
his  man  slept  over  the  stable ;  and  in  the  flat  occupied  by  an 
eminent  judge  the  maid  slept  as  best  she  could  in  a  drawer 
in  the  kitchen  which  was  shut  up  during  the  day.^  Owing  to 
the  scantiness  of  space,  the  nurse  and  children  would  probably 
sleep  in  the  study,  if  such  existed,  the  beds  being  removed 
during  the  day,  when  the  lord  of  session  worked  over  his 
charges  or  the  nobleman  saw  his  friends,  while  the  lady  in  her 
bedroom  was  entertaining  her  guests  at  tea.^ 

The  air  in  these  low  rooms  was  not  extremely  fresh,  especially 
when  it  came  from  those  windows  which  opened  into  fetid 
closes  or  wynds,  which  were  so  narrow  that  the  inhabitants 
could  converse  easily  and  exchange  friendly  cups  of  tea  with 
their  neighbours  on  the  other  side.  The  long  precipitous  stairs 
were  crowded  all  day  long  with  men,  women,  and  children 
belonging  to  the  various  flats  passing  up  and  down — masons, 
judges,  dancing  masters,  countesses,  barbers,  and  advocates,  all 
encountered  each  other  in  the  narrow  passage.  Besides  the 
residents  there  was  the  stream  of  porters  carrying  coals,  the 
Musselburgh  fishwives  with  their  creels,  the  sweeps,  the  men 
and  women  conveying  the  daily  supply  of  water  for  each 
flat,  barbers'  boys  with  retrimmed  wigs,  the  various  people 
bent  on  business  or  on  pleasure,  on  errands  and  visits  for  the 
several  landings,  all  jostling  unceremoniously  as  they  squeezed 
past  one  another.  It  was  no  easy  task  for  brilliantly  dressed 
ladies  to  crush  their  hoops,  four  or  five  yards  in  circumference, 
up  the  scale-stairs,  or  to  keep  them  uncontaminated  by  the 
dirt  abounding  on  the  steps.  So  confined  were  some  of  the 
stairs  that  it  was  sometimes  impossible,  when  death  came,  to 
get  the  coffin  down  ;  and  when  a  passage  was  too  narrow  for 

'  Nor  was  the  cleanliness  of  those  unsalubrious  abodes  above  suspicion,  and 
it  was  not  uncommon  for  lodgings  to  be  advertised  as  possessing  the  special 
virtue  of  being  "free  from  bugs."  It  is  witli  this  recommendation  that  Lord 
Kilkerran  announces  his  flat  to  be  let  at  £20. — Chambers'  Traditions,  ii.  23.5. 

^  "The  fashion  of  the  House  in  Edinbro'  was  so  small  at  that  time  [1697] 
that  there  was  turned  up  beds  with  curtains  drawn  round  them  in  most  of  the 
best  rooms  of  the  house." — Warrender's  Marchmont  and  House  of  Polwarth, 
p.  157. 


88       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

that  purpose,  the  power  was  possessed  by  legal  servitude  for 
the  tenant  of  a  house  so  situated  to  get  entry  through  the 
adjacent  house,  and  bring  the  coffin  down  its  more  commodious 
stair.^ 

Curiously  uncomfortable  and  mean  as  these  abodes  seem 
to  a  more  civilised  and  luxurious  age,  they  were  ideal  resi- 
dences to  many  in  that  frugal  age.^  So  familiar,  so  natural, 
was  this  kind  of  dwelling  in  their  eyes  that  the  tale  was  told 
— truly  or  not — of  a  Scottish  gentleman  who  paid  his  first 
visit  to  London,  and,  taking  his  lodging  in  the  uppermost 
story  of  a  house,  was  surprised  to  find  that  the  higher  he 
went  the  cheaper  it  was.  When  a  friend  told  him  he  had 
made  a  mistake,  he  replied  that  he  "  kenned  very  weel  what 
gentility  was,  and  when  he  had  lived  a'  his  life  in  a  sixth 
story  he  wasna  come  to  London  to  live  on  the  grund."  ^ 

The  hours  for  rising  were  early  in  these  old  times,  and  the 
city  was  astir  by  five  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Before  the  St. 
Giles'  bells  had  sounded  seven  the  shops  were  open,  the  shutters 
were  flung  back  on  their  hinges,  and  over  the  half-door  the 
tradesmen  were  leaning,  chatting  to  their  neighbours,  and  re- 
ceiving the  last  news ;  while  citizens  walked  down  to  the  little 
post-office,  situated  up  a  stair,  to  get  the  letters  just  brought 
in  by  the  post-runner  from  Glasgow  or  Aberdeen,  instead  of 
waiting  till  they  were  distributed  through  the  town  by  the 
single  letter-carrier  of  the  city,  or  even  the  three  carriers  who 
were  installed  in  I7l7.  In  the  taverns  the  doctors  were 
seeing  their  patients.  Up  till  1713  the  celebrated  physician, 
Dr.  Archibald  Pitcairn,  was  to  be  found  in  the  dingy  under- 

^  This  was  done  when  Sir  W.  Scott's  aunt,  Mrs.  Rutherfurd,  died  in  Hynd- 
ford  Close. 

"  The  accommodatiou  contained  in  mansions  of  the  highest  order  can  be 
learned  from  an  advertisement  of  1753.  "To  be  let,  a  very  convenient  lodging, 
pleasantly  situated  amidst  gardens  on  the  north  side  of  the  Cannongate,  belong- 
ing to  the  Right  Hon.  Lord  Panraure,  and  lately  possessed  by  the  Countess  of 
Aberdeen,  consisting  of  a  large  dining-room,  a  drawing-room,  3  very  good  bed- 
rooms with  closets,  and  other  conveniences  on  the  same  floor  ;  above  is  very 
good  garrets  with  vents,  and  below  a  very  convenient  kitchen,  cellars,  etc.,  all 
enclosed  within  a  handsome  courtyard." — Chambers'  Minor  Antiquities,  p.  252. 
This  dwelling,  so  flatteringly  described,  or  part  of  it,  was  afterwards  occupied 
by  Adam  Smith,  and  was  more  impartially  spoken  of  as  a  "melancholy,  dingy 
abode." 

^  Topham's  Letters,  p.  11. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  89 

ground  cellar,  called  from  its  darkness  the  "groping  office," 
near  St.  Giles'.  Early  every  morning,  by  six  o'clock,  President 
Dalrymple  had  seen  his  agent,  and  gone  over  a  dozen  cases 
before  his  breakfast.  Eight  o'clock  was  the  breakfast  hour, 
with  its  substantial  meal  of  mutton,  collops,  and  fowl,  with 
libations  of  ale,  and  sometimes  sack,  claret,  or  brandy — tea  not 
being  used  at  that  meal  till  about  1730.^  The  citizen  shut  his 
shop,  or  left  his  wife  to  tend  it,  when  the  St.  Giles'  bells  rang 
at  half-past  eleven — a  well-known  sound  which  was  known  as 
the  "  gill-bells,"  because  each  went  to  his  favourite  tavern  to 
take  his  "  meridian,"  consisting  of  a  gill  of  brandy,  or  a  tin 
'of  ale.  Little  these  citizens  heeded  the  music-bells,  which 
meanwhile  overhead  were  playing  the  bright  charming  tunes 
to  which  wiser  folk  were  all  listening."  The  dinner  hour  was 
at  one  o'clock  till  1745,  when  it  was  being  changed  to  two, 
though  the  humbler  shopkeepers  dined  at  twelve.  The  wonted 
fare  in  winter  was  broth,  salt  beef,  boiled  fowls ;  for  only  the 
wealthy  could  afford  to  get  fresh  beef  at  high  prices  until  the 
summer,  when  the  arrival  of  any  supply  of  beef  for  sale  was 
announced  in  the  streets  by  the  bellman.^ 

By  two  o'clock  all  citizens  wended  their  way  down  their 
respective  stairs  to  their  places  of  business,  reopened  the  doors, 
and  hung  up  the  key  on  a  nail  on  the  lintel  ■* — a  practice  which 
afforded  the  notorious  burglar.  Deacon  Brodie,  in  1780,  oppor- 
tunities of  taking  impressions  of  the  keys  on  putty.  By  the 
early  afternoon  the  streets  were  crowded,  for  into  the  main 
thoroughfare  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  poured.  Later  in  the 
century  an  Englishman  describes  the  scene :  "  So  great  a  crowd 

^  That  tea  was  in  vogue  about  1720,  and  was  soon  established  as  a  fashion, 
is  shown  by  Allan  Ramsay  entitling  his  collection  of  songs  (the  first  volume  of 
which  appeared  in  1724)  the  Tea  Tabic  Miscella.ny. 

-  Burt's  Letters  (i.  191)  speak  of  the  music  bells  that  played  to  great  per- 
fection— Italian,  Scots,  Irish,  and  English  tunes  heard  over  all  the  city  between 
eleven  and  twelve  o'clock. 

•'  In  winter  fresh  meat  was  practically  unattainable,  although,  as  a  writer  in 
1729  says,  rich  and  fastidious  gentlemen  used  to  send  to  Berwick  for  beef  or  veal, 
at  the  enormous  rate  of  7d.  a  pound  for  the  coarsest  meat  (the  summer  jiricc  being 
1  id.  or  2d.  a  pound),  as  there  was  none  to  be  got  at  home. — Essays  on  Enclosing,  etc. , 
1729,  p.  132.  There  died  in  1799  a  caddie  or  market  porter  who  remembered  in 
his  youth  wlien  the  fact  of  beef  being  for  sale  in  Edinburgh  was  publicly  announced 
by  a  bellman. — Chambers'  Popular  lUiymcs  0/  Scotland,  p.  7*5, 

*  ChamheTH'  Minor  Antiquities  0/ Edi7iburgh,  p.  166. 


90       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

of  people  are  nowhere  else  confined  in  so  small  a  space,  which 
makes  their  streets  as  much  crowded  every  day  as  others  are 
at  a  fair."  ^  There  were  few  coaches,  fortunately,  in  the  narrow 
steep  streets  ;  but  there  were  sedan-chairs  swaying  in  all  direc- 
tions, borne  by  Highland  porters,  spluttering  Gaelic  execra- 
tions on  those  who  impeded  their  progress.  There  were  ladies 
in  gigantic  hoops  sweeping  the  sides  of  the  causeway,  their 
head  and  shoulders  covered  with  their  gay  silken  plaids,  scarlet 
and  green,  their  faces  with  complexions  heightened  by  patches, 
and  concealed  by  black  velvet  masks  which  were  held  close  by 
a  string,  whose  buttoned  end  was  held  by  the  teeth.  In  their 
hands  they  bore  huge  green  paper  fans  to  ward  off  the  sun ;  by 
their  side  hung  the  little  bags  which  held  the  snuff  they  freely" 
used  ;  their  feet  shod  in  red  shoes,  with  heels  three  inches  high, 
with  which  they  tripped  nimbly  on  the  steep  decline  and 
over  filthy  places.^  There  were  stately  old  ladies,  with  their 
pattens  on  feet  and  canes  in  hand,  walking  with  precision  and 
dignity ;  judges  with  their  wigs  on  head  and  hats  under  their 
arm ;  advocates  in  their  gowns  on  way  to  the  courts  in  Parlia- 
ment House ;  ministers  in  their  blue  or  gray  coats,  bands, 
wigs,  and  three-cornered  hats.  At  the  Cross  (near  St.  Giles') 
the  merchants  assembled  to  transact  business,  and  to  exchange 
news  and  snuff-boxes ;  while  physicians,  lawyers,  and  men 
about  town  met  them  as  at  an  open-air  club,  and  joined 
citizens  in  the  gossip  of  the  city.^  In  the  town  there  was  a  fine 
camaraderie — the  friendliness  and  familiarity  of  a  place  where 
every  one  knew  everybody.  From  early  morning,  when  they 
awoke  on  the  doorsteps  on  which  they  had  slept,  till  night, 
when  they  lighted  the  way  in  the  dark  streets  with  paper 
lanterns,  the  caddies  were  to  be  seen — impudent,  ragged,  alert, 
and  swift — carrying  messages  and  parcels  to  any  part  of  the 
town  for  a  penny — very  poor,  but  marvellously  honest,  for 
whatever  was  stolen  or  lost  when  in  custody  of  these  caddies 
was  refunded  by  their  society.^     They  knew  every  place  and 

^  Gentlevian's  Magazine,  May  1766,  p.  211. 
^  Somerville's  Own  Life,  chap.  ix.  ;  Chambers'  Traditions. 
^  Burt's  Letters  ;  Forbes'  Memoirs  of  a  Banking  Ho\ise,  p.  26. 
*  Burt's  Letters,  i.  21  ;  Topham's  Letters  from  Edinburgh,  p.  81  ;  Hximphreij 
Clinker;  Glasgow  Past  and  Present,  ii.  150. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  91 

person  ;  they  could  tell  who  had  arrived  last  in  town,  where  they 
lodged,  and  how  long  they  were  to  stay  ;  they  were  invaluable 
as  detectives,  for  the  haunts  of  the  lowest  and  the  doings  of 
the  thieves  were  as  familiar  to  them  as  the  names  of  the  guests 
at  the  Lord  President's  supper  party  the  previous  night,  and 
the  condition  of  insobriety  of  each  gentleman  when  he  stumbled 
home  in  the  morning. 

Such  were  the  street  scenes  in  Edinburgh  throughout  half 
of  the  century — indeed,  with  curiously  few  changed  phases 
till  about  1780,  when  the  tide  of  fashion  was  setting  towards 
the  new  town.  Generations  came  and  went,  fashions  of  dress 
changed,  many  old  habits  and  manners  passed  away ;  but  the 
homely,  frank,  convivial  outdoor  life  remained  much  the  same,^ 
where  every  face  was  known,  and  few  domestic  secrets  were 
hid. 

At  four  o'clock  the  ladies  had  their  refection,  for  the  "  four 
hours  "  all  over  Scotland,  and  with  all  ranks,  was  a  necessary 
refreshment  of  the  day.  In  the  larger  houses  the  hostess  re- 
ceived her  visitors  in  the  drawing-room ;  but  in  smaller  flats 
she  was  obliged,  as  in  the  country,  to  see  them  in  her  bed- 
room. Till  about  1720  ladies  had  drunk  their  ale  or  claret ; 
but  when  tea  came  into  vogue  that  beverage  became  a  necessity, 
and  wine  was  reserved  for  the  gentlemen.  On  the  mahogany 
tea-table  were  liliputian  cups  for  the  expensive  beverage, 
with  spoons  all  numbered,  lest  in  the  confusion,  when  every 
cup  was  returned  before  a  fresh  helping  was  served  to  any, 
the  wrong  cup  should  be  given  ;  fine  linen  napkins  were  handed 
to  each  guest  to  preserve  their  gowns  from  speck  and  spot.^ 
By  eight  o'clock  all  visitors  had  gone,  for  the  supper  hour  had 
come ;  the  maids  had  arrived  with  the  pattens  for  the  elderly 
ladies,  and  lanterns  to  light  their  mistresses  to  their  homes  in 
the  dark  wynds  and  stairs.  When  citizens  began  their  copious 
suppers,  they  ate  and  drank  till  late,  and  guests  departed  not 

^  Mr.  Adam  Petrie  gives  his  important  advice  on  etiquette:  "If  a  lady  of 
quality  advance  to  you  and  tender  lier  cheek,  you  are  only  to  pretend  to  salute 
her  by  putting  your  lu^ad  to  her  iiood  ;  when  she  advances  make  her  a  low  bow, 
and  when  you  retreat  give  her  another.  Note.  —  In  France  they  salute  ladies  on 
the  cheek  ;  but  in  IJritaiii  and  Ireland  they  salute  on  the  lips.  But  ladies  give 
their  inferiors  their  cheek  only." — Jinks  0/  Good  Deportment,  Edin.  17l^0. 

2  Boswell'   Ancient  lloyalty. 


92       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

too  soberly,  while  the  servant  guided  their  meandering  foot- 
steps and  held  a  candle  or  lantern  to  light  them  to  the  "  mouth  " 
of  the  close.^ 


II 

The  amusements  of  the  town  during  the  first  half  of  the 
century  were  neither  varied  nor  lively.  For  this  dulness  and 
social  sombreness  the  Church  and  popular  piety  were  responsible. 
All  gaiety  was  looked  on  with  grim  censure.  Kirk-Sessions 
uttered  anathemas  against  all  worldly  pleasure,  exercised 
tyrannical  sway  over  every  day  of  the  week  and  over  every 
action  of  the  people.  Sabbath  was  the  special  day  when 
every  act  and  moment  of  existence  were  watched ;  the  doing  of 
any  work,  the  indulgence  of  the  slightest  recreation,  was  for- 
bidden ;  the  "vaguing  "  or  loitering  in  the  streets  or  on  the  Castle 
hill,  the  mere  "  gazing  idlely  "  out  of  the  windows,  was  a  sub- 
ject of  condemnation  and  occasion  of  threats  of  discipline  by 
Kirk-Sessions,  and  of  fine  by  magistrates.^  To  secure  the  perfect 
observance  of  the  Lord's  Day,  the  bailies  had  "  seizers  "  or  com- 
purgators, appointed  at  the  instance  of  the  Church,  who  took 
hold  of  any  one  "  during  sermons  "  who  dared  to  neglect  divine 
service  and  forthwith  reported  him  to  the  general  Kirk-Session. 
In  the  evening  the  patrol  watched  the  streets,  which  usually 
in  these  days  were  deserted  like  a  city  of  the  dead ;  followed 
any  belated  passenger's  echoing  footsteps,  peered  down  wynds, 
looked  up  stairs  for  any  lurking  transgressors  of  the  law  of 
Mount  Sinai.^  The  "  kirk  treasurer,"  appointed  by  the  Session, 
whose  very  name  was  at  once  a  subject  of  mockery  and  an 
object  of  terror,  was  ever  on  the  alert  for  scandals  and  culprits 
that  brought  in  fines  and  fees.  The  voice  of  the  Church  was 
stern  against  the  barbers  who  on  Sabbath  furtively  carried  the 
gentlemen's  wigs  all  ready  trimmed  for  worship,  or  went  to 
shave  them  into  tidiness.      This  demand   for  the  services  of 

^  Account  Books  of  Foulis  of  Ravclston,  p.  301,  notes  in  1703  that  Sir  John 
gives  "to  Marquess  of  Tweedall's  servant  that  held  out  ye  light  in  the  closs-head 
when  I  went  to  see  him,"  14s.  6d.  Scots  as  "drink  money." 

^  Kimjs  Pious  Proclamations,  etc.,  1727,  p.  17. 

^  Axnoi' s,  H istory  of  Ediiibitrgh,  p.  203  ;  Burt's  iciicrs,  i.  80  ;  Allan  Ramsay's 
Poems,  i.  158. 


-^ 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  93 

barbers  made  that  craft  one  of  the  largest  and  most  prosperous 
in  the  community  ;  for  gentlemen,  instead  of  "  barbourising  " 
themselves,  to  use  the  expression  of  the  day,  were  dependent 
on  their  servants  or  their  wig-makers  to  shave  their  heads. 
Possibly  there  were  some  who  acted  like  Sir  John  Foulis  of 
Eavelston,  who,  quite  innocent  of  any  sense  of  humour,  ordered 
his  boy  to  buy  a  sheep's  head  and  soap  that  he  might  thereon 
learn  how  to  barberise  the  head  of  his  master.^ 

Every  pleasure  of  the  week-day  was  watched  and  repro- 
bated as  grimly  as  were  all  desecrations  of  the  Sabbath — the 
theatre,  dancing,  the  club.  The  last  was  a  source  of  horror 
to  the  pious  in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  as  being  the 
scene  of  hideous  orgies,  and  resort  of  those  who  ridiculed  the 
Kirk  and  the  Whigs  without  any  principles  on  either  Church 
or  politics.  The  names  that  these  re -unions  bore — the 
"  Sulphur  Club,"  the  "  Hell-Fire  Club,"  the  "  Horn  Club,"  the 
"  Demireps  " — had  a  dare-devil  and  dare-kirk  sound  ;  the  free 
tallc  of  their  members,  their  ribald  verses,  their  blaspheming 
songs,  as  wildly  rumoured  abroad,  became  the  scandal  of  the 
town,  while  the  iniquities  of  the  Hell-Fire  Club  were  considered 
past  mention — like  the  later  goings-on  at  Medmenham  Abbey 
— and  as  deserving  divine  judgment.  "  Lord  pity  us,"  moans 
Mr.  Eobert  Wodrow  :  "  wickedness  is  come  to  a  terrible  height." 
The  words  and  jests  and  verses  of  Dr.  Archibald  Pitcairn, 
as  malicious  gossip  related  them,  at  these  terrible  saturnalia, 
flouting  at  religion  and  even  at  the  ministers,  were  matters  of 
sore  grief.^ 

Theatre  there  was  none  for  a  long  while  in  Edinburgh ; 
but  occasionally  travelling  companies  came  from  England,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  famous  comedian  Tony  Ashton,  in  1715, 
and  again  in  1726,  and  in  successive  years — "  filling  up  our  cup 

^  Account  Book  of  Foxdis  of  Ravel ston  (Scottish  Hist.  Society),  p.  301.  "To 
Jeainie  Gray,  to  buy  a  sheap's  head  and  soap  to  Icani  him  to  barberise  me, 
3s.  6d.  (Scots)"  ;  "To  a  lad  who  barbarised  me,  5s." — such  are  frequent  items 
in  this  househoUl  book. 

'■^  "  At  Edinburgh  I  hear  Dr.  Pitcairn  and  several  others  do  meet  regularly  every 
Lord's  day  and  read  the  Scripture  in  order  to  lampoon  and  ridicule  it " — thus  writes 
Wodrow  in  1711  {Aiialecta,  i.  323).  Certainly  Pitcairn  lampooned  the  fanatical 
clergy,  while  lie  was  an  admiring  friend  of  Principal  Carstairs.  Wliat  he  thought 
of  them  may  be  seen  in  his  coarse  and  scurrilous  play  2'he  Assembly. 


94       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  Y 

of  sin,"  groaned  the  ministers.  Horror  was  felt  that  some 
judges  and  nobles,  who  were  ruling  elders  in  the  Church,  had 
been  present ;  and  that,  notwithstanding  the  intimation  of  some 
clergy  that  they  would  refuse  the  communion  to  those  who 
frequented  this  nursery  of  Satan,  the  attendance  when  the 
Mourning  Bride  was  performed  had  been  grievously  great.^ 
"  A  vast  deal  of  money  in  this  time  of  scarcity  is  spent  most 
wickedly,"  records  Wodrow,  "  especially  as  there  is  such  a  choak 
for  money."  One  has  more  sympathy  with  those  who  con- 
demned the  less  edifying  plays  of  Congreve  than  this  utterly 
respectable  and  lugubrious  tragedy  from  a  witty  and  lively  pen. 
Fortunately,  even  the  broadest  pieces  of  Wycherley  were  almost 
harmless,  as  they  were  listened  to  by  feminine  ears  far  too 
unsophisticated  to  catch  the  gross  innuendo  uttered  in  high 
London  accents  which  they  could  not  understand." 

In  1736  Allan  Eamsay  was  anxious  to  add  to  his  many 
occupations  of  ex-wigmaker,  poet,  and  librarian,  that  of  theatre- 
manager,  and  built  a  play-house  in  Carrubber's  Close,  which  was 
opened  only  to  be  summarily  shut  under  the  influence  of 
clergy  and  magistrates.^  In  vain  the  versatile  little  citizen 
brought  his  complaint  for  loss  of  money  before  the  Court 
of  Session :  he  got  only  the  subtle  verdict  that,  "  though  he 
had  been  damaged,  he  had  not  been  injured."  The  career  of 
the  drama  in  Edinburgh  was  precarious  and  chequered. 
Denounced  by  the  ministers,  discouraged  by  the  magistrates,  the 
theatre  received  no  license.  But,  evasive  of  the  law,  plays  were 
performed  in  the  Taylors'  Hall,  and,  to  escape  the  legal  penalty, 

^  "  I  am  informed,"  writes  Wodrow  in  1731,"  that  the  English  strollers  are  [sic"] 
a  prodigiouse  sumn  of  money  in  the  town  of  Edinburgh.  It's  incredible  what  num- 
ber of  chairs  with  men  are  carryed  to  these  places,  and  it  is  certain  that  for  some 
weeks  they  made  fifty  pound  sterling  every  night,  and  they  will  be  coming  home 
from  them  even  of  the  Saturnday  evenings  at  one  of  the  morning.  This  is  a 
most  scandalouse  way  of  disposing  of  our  money  when  we  are  in  such  a  choak  for 
money  ;  and  it's  a  dveadfull  corruption  of  our  youth  and  ane  ilett  (eyelet)  to 
prodigality  and  vanity  and  the  money  spent  in  cloaths  for  attending." — Analccta, 
iv.  214. 

-  A  young  lady  from  the  country  who  had  been  to  the  theatre  when  the  Old 
Bachelor  and  Love  for  Love  were  played,  when  told  that  "these  were  not  proper 
plays  for  young  women,"  replied,  "They  did  nothing  \vrong  that  I  saw,  and 
as  for  what  they  said  it  was  high  English  and  I  couldn't  understand  it." — 
Kamsay's  Scotland  and  Scotsmen,  ii.  63. 

^  Wilson's  Memorials,  i.  198. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  95 

were  advertised  as  being  given  "  gratis  "  after  a  concert.^  The 
entertainment  was  announced  as  "a  concert  of  musick  with  a 
play  between  the  acts,"  and  the  prudest  might  go  and  enjoy 
Vanbrugh's  Provoked  Husbmul  and  Wycherley's  unsavoury 
Country  Wife  under  guise  of  innocently  listening  to  Corelli's 
sonatas.  It  was  in  1756  that  the  town  was  delighted  and  the 
Church  horrified  by  the  performance  of  the  tragedy  of  Douglas 
from  the  pen  of  Mr.  John  Home,  minister  of  Athelstaneford, 
given  in  the  presence  of  several  brother  ministers  of  the  Gospel.^ 
The  Edinburgh  Presbytery  drew  up  its  exhortation  that  "  all 
within  its  bounds  discourage  the  illegal  and  dangerous  enter- 
tainments of  the  stage,  and  restrain  those  under  their  influence 
from  frequenting  such  seminaries  of  vice  and  folly."  Other 
Presbyteries  censured  or  suspended  ministers  for  their  profane 
audacity  in  attending  such  improper  places,  and  the  delin- 
quents received  their  rebukes  solemnly  in  public  and  laughed 
at  them  heartily  in  private.  Meanwhile  Home  quietly  resigned 
his  living  to  escape  deposition,  and  allowed  the  Church  to 
fume  at  a  play  so  immoral  and  irreligious,  which,  it  was 
alleged,  encouraged  suicide,  and  contained  impious  expressions 
and  mock  prayers,  and  even  "  horrid  swearing."  ^  But  in  spite 
of  all  solemn  reprobation  society  raved  over  its  marvellous 
beauties,  and  at  the  tea-parties  ladies  recited  the  opening 
soliloquy  to  entranced  companies — 

And  you  fair  dames  of  merry  England, 
As  fast  your  tears  did  flow. 

In  spite  of  all  the  excitement  of  the  godly,  the  very  fact  that 
ministers  and  elders  dared  to  countenance  a  stage  play  showed 

^  Arnot's  History  of  Edinburgh,  p.  364  ;  Jackson's  History  of  Scottish  Stage,  p. 
31.  Caledonian  Mercury,  December  13, 1750,  advertises — "At  the  Concert  Hall  in 
the  Cannongate,  to-morrow,  will  be  performed  (gratis)  the  Tragical  History  of 
Richard  III.,  containing  the  distresses  and  death  of  K.  Henry  VI.  of  Gloucester, 
the  murder  of  the  Princes  in  the  Tower,  the  memorable  battle  of  Boswortli 
field,  with  many  more  historical  Passages  ...  to  which  will  be  added  (gratis)  a 
Pantomime  entertainment  in  grotesque  characters  called  Merlin  or  the  British 
Enchantkr,  etc." 

2  C&Tlyle's  Autobiography ;  Somerville's  Own  Life  and  Times ;  Mackenzie's 
Life  and  Writings  of  John  Home  ;  Scots  Magazine,  xix.  p.  18. 

^  Arnot's  History  of  Edinburgh,  \).  377.  The  oath  that  was  reprobated  was  "  by 
Him  that  died  upon  the  accursed  tree." 


96       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  , 

that  the  old  bigotry  was  beginning  to  lose  its  hold.  The 
people  thronged  the  play-house  till  the  Church  in  despair  ceased 
to  fulminate  at  the  pit  of  a  theatre  as  leading  to  the  pit  that 
is  bottomless,  and  at  last,  in  1764,  a  theatre  was  Hcensed  and 
set  up  on  a  field  which  had  been  the  scene  of  Whitfield's 
fervid  religious  meetings. 

Gentlemen  had  their  other  amusements  on  which,  fortun- 
ately, the  religious  world  laid  no  embargo.  They  had  their 
golf,  their  archery,  their  horse-races  on  Leith  sands — which  the 
most  scrupulous  magistrates  did  not  hesitate  to  encourage  by 
presenting  cups  as  prizes.^  There  were  also  the  less  praise- 
worthy cock-pits  resorted  to  by  high  and  low,  all  eagerly 
watching  their  "  mains,"  an  amusement  which  had  no  very 
elevating  effect  on  the  youth  and  leisured  men  about  town. 
Strange  to  say,  the  clergy  who  were  ready  to  denounce  all 
carnal  pleasure,  even  in  the  decorous  form  of  a  minuet,  uttered 
no  complaint  against  the  coarse  and  demoralising  sport  of 
cock-fighting.  Why  this  ecclesiastical  reticence  ?  Obviously 
because  every  one  had  been  accustomed  to  that  sport  in  every 
parish  school.  Every  minister  in  his  boyish  days  had  himself 
indulged  in  it,  when  on  Fastern  Eve  or  Shrove  Tuesday  he 
had  proudly  brought  his  own  favourite  cock  under  his  arm 
to  pit  against  those  of  his  schoolmates,  while  the  master 
looked  on  and  annexed  the  corpses  of  the  slaughtered  fowls  to 
replenish  his  scanty  table. 

Other  entertainments  were  regarded  less  leniently.  When 
in  1725  the  enterprising  little  Allan  Eamsay  opened  a  cir- 
culating library" — the  first  ever  formed  in  the  kingdom — 
in  the  first  floor  of  a  "  land  "  in  the  Luckenbooths,  the  arrival 
and  circulation  of  profane  books  from  London  was  regarded 
with  opprobrium.  Not  content  with  the  pious  literature  of 
their  fathers,  the  citizens  now  revelled  in  ungodly  plays,  poems, 
and  scurrilous  pamphlets.  Again  Mr.  Wodrow  uttered,  in  his 
jeremiads,  the  feelings  of  his  party,  lamenting  that  "  profaneness 
is  come  to  a  great  height ;  all  the  villanous,  profane,  and 
obscene  books  and  plays  printed  at  London  by  Curie  and 
others  are  got  down  by  Allan  Eamsay  and   lent   out  for  an 

1  Arnot's  History  of  Edinhcrgh,  p.  363. 
^  The  second  circulating  library  was  founded  in  London  in  1740. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB URGH  97 

easy  price  to  young  boys,  servant  girls  of  the  better  sort,  and 
gentlemen,  and  vice  and  obscenity  are  dreadfully  propagated."  ^ 
Instigated  by  that  virtuous  censor  of  morals.  Lord  Grange, 
the  magistrates  sent  some  of  their  number  to  inspect  the 
pernicious  shelves;  but,  forewarned,  the  wily  librarian  kept  out 
of  sight  the  worst  of  his  stock,  and  the  civic  detectives  saw 
only  an  array  of  decorous  works  before  them. 


Ill 

In  the  dearth  of  public  pleasures,  the  worldly  energies  of 
society  found  expression  in  concerts  and  dancing  assemblies. 
The  private  houses  were  far  too  small  to  allow  of  dancing- 
parties.  There  was  not  space  enough  for  a  country  dance  or 
minuet,  no  place  wherein  to  pile  up  the  superabundant  furni- 
ture, no  room  for  guests  to  sit,  or  refreshments  to  be  eaten,  or 
be-hooped  ladies  to  move.  Late  in  the  century,  when  dresses 
were  of  more  moderate  dimensions,  the  amiable  old  lady,  Mrs. 
Cockburn,  singer  of  the  "  Flowers  of  the  Forest,"  did  for  the 
nonce  have  a  dance  for  young  folk  in  her  flat  in  Blair  Close. 
There  in  her  straitened  quarters  twenty-two  guests  assembled, 
"  nine  couples  on  the  floor."  "  Our  fiddlers,"  she  writes  to  her 
friend,  "  sat  where  the  cupboard  is,  and  they  danced  in  both 
rooms ;  the  table  was  stuffed  into  the  window,  and  we  had 
plenty  of  room.      It  made  the  bairns  all  vastly  happy."  ^ 

Few,  however,  had  the  ingenuity  or  good-nature  of  this 
old  gentlewoman:  so  from  1710,  when  the  first  assembly  was 
opened,  it  was  at  public  balls  that  society  met.^  The  pulpits 
rang  with  denunciations  of  this  seductive  temptation  to  sin, 
lust,  and  worldliness  ;  "  promiscuous  dancing  "  was  condemned 
as  an  incentive  to  sensuality,  and  these  rooms  were  pictured 
as  nurseries  of  vice.  But,  iu  spite  of  all,  society  danced,  and 
dancing-masters  drove  as  flourishing  a  business  as  the  barbers. 
These  dancing  teachers  gave  their  own  balls,  in  bigger  rooms 
of  a  wynd.  Tickets  cost  2s.  6d. ;  dancing  began  at  five 
o'clock  and  went  on  till  ten  or  eleven.      There  was  also  the 

^  Wodrow's  Analeda,  iii.  515. 
^  Tytler  and  Watson's  Songstresses  of  Scotland,  i.  p.  110. 
^  Wilson's  Memorials,  ii.  23. 
VOL.  I  7 


98       SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

assembly  in  the  West  Bow,  in  a  flat  facing  the  grim  and 
haunted  lodging  of  the  wizard  Major  Weir ;  and  in  the  narrow 
lane,  from  four  o'clock,^  there  was  a  crowd  of  sedan-chairs 
with  their  gaily  attired  occupants,  the  noisy  mob  pressing 
to  witness  the  fine  sight,  the  objurgations  in  safe  Gaelic  of 
competing  chairmen,  the  clanking  of  the  swords  of  gentlemen 
in  bright  silken  coats.  Up  the  winding  turnpike  stair  to  a 
flat  ladies  ascended,  holding  up  their  hoops  to  gain  difficult 
entrance  by  the  narrow  passage.  For  these  articles  of  raiment 
were  enormous  and  capacious,  as  young  Eobert  Strange  the 
Jacobite  engraver  found,  when  beneath  the  hoop  of  his 
betrothed,  the  vigorous-minded  Isabella  Lumsden,  he  sought 
concealment  from  his  pursuers,  while  she  sat  quietly  spinning 
in  seeming  innocence  before  the  baflied  searchers. 

In  this  poor  incommodious  room,  and  after  1720,  in  the 
Assembly  Close,  off  the  High  Street,^  the  dancing  revels  took 
place,  while  the  ministers  uttered  their  solemn,  ineffectual 
warning.  Under  the  patronage  of  ladies  of  high  degree,  such 
as  my  Lady  Panmure,  or  beautiful  Susanna,  Countess  of 
Eglinton,  the  minuet  and  the  country  dance  went  on  with 
stiffness  and  with  state  in  the  low-roofed,  hot,  ill-ventilated 
room  to  the  meagre  music  of  a  few  fiddlers.  By  eleven  o'clock 
the  company  dispersed,  the  stream  of  fashion  poured  down  the 
dark  stair,  and  then,  as  the  Countess  of  Eglinton,  lovely 
herself,  and  her  seven  lovely  daughters  were  borne  off  in  their 
sedan-chairs,  the  gentlemen  with  drawn  swords  escorted  them 
to  their  lodgings  in  Jack's  Land. 

Years  passed  on ;  new  leaders  of  fashion  came  as  the  old 
departed.  In  the  middle  of  the  century,  as  the  companies 
arrived  up  the  stairs  to  the  ballroom,  at  the  entrance  stood 

^  Burt's  ieiicrs,  i.  186;  Arnot's  Hi$t.  of  Edinhurgh ;  Chambers'  Traditions; 
Ramsay's  Poems,  "The  Assembly";  Wilson's  Reminiscences  of  Old  Edinburgh, 
i.  307;  Smollett's  Humphrey  Clinker;  Wilson's  Memorials,  i.  199;  Topham's 
Letters,  p.  198. 

^  ' '  They  have  an  assembley  at  Edinburgh,  where  every  Thursday  they  meet  and 
dance  from  four  till  eleven  at  night.  It  is  half-a-crown,  and  whatever  tea,  coffee, 
chocalate,  biscuit,  etc.,  they  call  for,  they  must  pay  as  the  managers  direct ;  and 
they  are  the  Countess  of  Panmure,  Lady  Newhall,  the  President's  lady,  and  the 
Lady  Drumpellier.  The  ministers  are  preaching  against  it,  and  say  it  will  be 
another  horning  order."  So  in  1727  Miss  A.  Stewart  writes  to  Mrs.  Dunbar 
in  Social  Life  of  Morayshire,  118. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB URGH  99 

the  old  glover,  Lord  Kirkcudbright,  selling  white  gloves  to 
the  dancers  as  they  entered/  At  the  end  of  the  room  sat 
the  majestic  figure  of  Miss  Nicky  Murray  (sister  of  Lord 
Mansfield),  decorated  with  a  gold  medal  as  insignia  of  her 
office  as  Lady  Directress,  in  which  capacity  she  exercised 
undisputed  sway. 

Each  partner  had  been  chosen  by  the  gentlemen  before  the 
ball,  the  selection  being  made  at  some  private  party,  when 
all  the  fans  were  placed  in  a  cocked  hat,  and  the  owner  of 
fan  picked  out  became  the  partner  for  the  night — each 
having  a  shrewd  guess  who  was  the  fair  owner  of  the  fan  he 
took.^  The  tickets  were  then  bought  by  the  gentleman,  who 
sometimes  had  one  or  two  oranges  stowed  away  in  his  coat 
pocket  for  the  refreshment  of  his  lady,  who  svicked  them 
during  pauses  of  conversation  and  intervals  in  the  dance — a 
succulent  process  which  she  varied  by  presenting  to  her  nose 
delicate  pinches  of  snuff,  which  she  extracted  from  the 
dainty  snuff-box  hanging  by  her  side.^  The  customary  price 
for  the  ticket  was  two  shillings  and  sixpence,  not  defraying 
the  modest  expenses  of  tea  and  coffee  which  were  consumed 
in  the  card-room,  and  the  proceeds  of  the  ball  were  devoted 
to  charity — especially  to  the  new  Royal  Infirmary,  which  was 
enlisting  popular  interest. 

Oliver  Goldsmith,  in  1753,  then  a  poor  student  at  college, 
one  evening  spent  one  of  his  few  half-crowns — probably 
borrowed — to  attend  this  fashionable  gathering,  which  he 
describes  as  deplorably  dull.'*  "  When  the  stranger  enters  the 
dancing-room  he  sees  one  end  of  the  room  taken  up  by  ladies, 
who  sit  dismally  in  a  group  by  themselves,  and  at  the  other 
end  stand  their  pensive  partners  that  are  to  be.  The  ladies 
may  ogle  and  the  gentlemen  may  sigh,  but  an  embargo  is  laid 
upon  any  close  converse.     At  length  the  lady  directress  pitches 

^  Chambers'  Traditions  of  Edinburgh,  ii.  108.  At  the  election  of  peers  for 
House  of  Lords  his  lordship  claimed  his  riglit  to  vote,  and  at  the  ball  which  closed 
the  ceremonial  the  old  f^lover  joined  his  brother  peers.  The  title  was  legally 
confirmed  to  his  son. — Wilson's  Old  Ediiihurgli,  i.  70. 

2  Boswell's  Ancient  Royalty. 

'  Fergusson's  Henry  Erskinc  and  his  Times,  p.  119. 

*  Letter  from  Goldsmith  in  Forst'er's  Life  ami  Times  of  0.  Goldsmith,  i.  pp. 
52,  433. 


loo     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

upon  a  gentleman  and  lady  to  a  minuet,  which  they  perform 
with  a  formality  approaching  to  despondency.  After  five  or 
six  couples  have  thus  walked  the  gauntlet,  all  stand  for  the 
country  dance,  each  gentleman  furnished  with  a  partner  from 
the  aforesaid  lady  directress.  So  they  dance  much  and  say 
nothing,  and  this  concludes  an  assembly."  Thus  graphically, 
if  not  without  exaggeration,  Oliver  tells  his  experiences.  But 
a  very  ugly  youth,  with  no  attractions  to  speak  of,  and  with 
no  friends  to  speak  to  and  no  lady  to  dance  with,  even  though 
he  was  clad,  according  to  the  tailor's  ledger  still  extant,  in  a 
suit  of  "  sky  bleu  sattin,  rich  black  genoa  velvett,  best  super- 
fine clarett  coloured  cloth,"  was  not  likely  to  enjoy  himself 
heartily  at  a  gathering  which  was  so  exclusive  that  any  man 
who  ventured  therein  without  the  passport  of  position  or 
birth  was  shown  by  the  aristocratic  Miss  Nicky  that  his 
appearance  was  at  least  a  surprise.  Neither  in  that  room,  nor 
in  the  larger  apartment  to  which  dancers  adjourned  in  1756 
in  Bell's  Wynd,  was  dignity  dissociated  from  discomfort  at 
these  balls ;  from  the  draughty  stair-case  came  the  cold  air, 
the  smoke  of  the  flambeaux  of  footmen  stationed  at  the  entry, 
and  the  rooms  were  crowded  on  occasions  when  a  supper  was 
laid  in  one  dancing  apartment.^  As  the  St.  Giles'  bells 
sounded  eleven,  the  despotic  Miss  Nicky  with  firm  dignity 
waved  her  fan,  the  music  ceased,  the  concourse  dispersed,  the 
gentlemen  saw  their  partners  home  to  their  flats,  and  there- 
after adjourned  to  some  tavern  to  drink  and  each  to  toast  the 
lady  of  his  choice.  Each  man  proposed  his  own  as  the 
loveliest  of  her  sex,  drank  to  her  glory,  vowing  to  die  in  her 
defence,  the  one  who  drank  most  and  fell  prone  last  being 
the  victor.  Thus  one  after  another  followed  in  tipsy  folly 
the  barbarous  custom  called  "  saving  the  ladies,"  till  the 
chivalrous  party  became  helplessly  drunk." 

With  all  their  inconveniences  and  social  crudities,  in  spite 
of  the  shabbiness  and  discomfort  of  these  entertainments,  at 
which  modern  nerves  shudder,  they  were  the  charm  of  Edin- 
burgh fashion,  and  lived  long  in  the  memories  of  old  people, 
who   remembered    the   bright   days   when    they   were   young. 

1  Arnot's  Hist,  of  Edin.  p.  382. 
-  Thi3  rough  custom  had  died  out  by  1790.     Creech's  Fugitive  Pieces,  p.  68. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  loi 

Alas  !  these  rooms — sources  of  so  much  mirth  and  matrimony 
— were  deserted  when  Miss  Nicky  Murray  ceased  to  reign. 
Elderly  ladies  and  gentlemen  saw  the  old  festive  rooms  fallen 
to  low  estate,  and  the  town  sweeps  and  decrepit  city  guard 
tenanting  and  profaning  the  dear  old  rooms.^  In  1777  the 
assemblies  forsook  the  old  High  Street,  and  met  in  George 
Street  in  the  new  town,  whither  the  tide  of  fashion  was 
beginning  to  flow. 

There  was  another  aspect  of  ancient  Edinburgh  society, 
which  presents  the  fairer  and  more  refined  conditions  of  a  life 
which  had  much  that  was  coarse  in  manners  and  uncultivated 
in  tone.  Music  was  one  of  the  favourite  tastes  of  fashionable 
circles,  especially  when  played  by  the  distinguished  amateurs 
of  society.^  In  a  tavern — the  "  Cross  Keys " — ladies  and 
gentlemen  from  1718  met  in  the  afternoons  to  hear  their 
musical  friends,  who  gave  "  consorts,"  at  which  the  best  Italian 
sonatas  were  played  on  flute,  hautbois,  violoncello,  and  harpsi- 
chord. Artistic  noblemen  and  lairds  who  had  travelled  to 
the  melodious  south  brought  the  pieces  which  they  (aided  by 
professional  musicians)  performed  to  an  enthusiastic  throng 
of  beauties,  who  went  into  raptures  as  my  Lords  Colvil 
and  Haddington  sat  down  to  the  harpsichord  or  the  'cello. 
When  these  grew  old,  others  took  their  place  in  seat  and 
platform  in  St.  Cecilia's  Hall  in  the  dingy,  dirty  Cowgate, 
The  songs  of  the  country,  too,  were  not  neglected  either  at 
these  public  reunions  or  at  tea-parties  in  the  flats,  to  which 
the  sedan-chairs  bore  their  be-hooped,  be-powdered  occupants, 
where  they  partook  of  fare  as  simple  as  the  airs  they  sang. 
Without  accompaniment,  each  vocalist  in  turn  sang  those 
songs — now  plaintive,  now  merry,  sad,  humorous,  or  lilting — 
and  many  a  party  was  moved  to  tears  at  charming  strains 
which  told  of  the  artificial  woes  of  a  Strephon  or  Chloe,  or  the 
humbler  griefs  and  loves  of  a  Maggie  or  Jenny,  redolent  of 
the  byre.^  Cards  lost  their  attraction  to  silk -coated  beaux 
when   Scots  melodies,  old   and   yet   ever   fresh,  were   poured 

1  Kay's  Edinlurgh  Portraits,  1877,  ii.  156. 
*  Chambers'  Domestic  Annals,  iii.  434. 

'  Chambers'  Scottish  Songs,  Introd.  vol.  i.  p.  58  ;  Allan  Cunningham's  Scottish 
Songs,  1818,  Introd.  vol.  i. 


I02      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

forth.  It  was  to  suit  this  taste  that  Allan  Eamsay  published 
in  1724  his  Tea-Table  Miscellany}  in  which  the  familiar  tunes 
were  retained  to  familiar  words,  or  set  to  verses  which  were 
made  more  clean  to  satisfy  a  more  modest  age.  But  in  truth, 
though  he  had  lengthened  the  skirts  of  the  "  high-kilted  muse  " 
to  fit  her  for  the  drawing-room,  he  had  not  done  enough; 
and  it  shows  that  the  period  was  one  which  allowed  free 
expression  and  allusions,  and  wanton  themes  and  words,  which 
might  well  have  made  the  fair  singer  blush.  He  dedicated 
this  first  volume  of  his  Miscellany — 

To  ilka  lovely  British  lass, 

Frae  ladies  Charlotte,  Anne,  and  Jean, 

Down  to  ilk  bonny  singing  Bess 
That  dances  barefoot  on  the  green. 

But  though  he  plumes  himself  that  all  uncleanness  and  ribaldry 
have  been  kept  out,  "  that  the  modest  voice  and  ear  of  the 
fair  singer  might  meet  no  affront,"  ^  there  is  much  that  is 
better  fitted  for  "  barefooted  Bess  "  than  my  "  lady  Charlotte," 
though  probably  her  ladyship  saw  no  harm. 

Nor  were  the  higher  classes  content  with  singing  Scots 
songs  :  not  a  few  accomplished  men  "  trifled  with  the  Muses  " 
in  a  highly  condescending  way,  and  composed  excellent  verses 
to  old  melodies,  which  Eamsay  had  inserted  in  his  collection, 
though,  of  course,  they  were  too  gentlemanly  to  publish  them 
themselves,  and  join  the  vulgar  herd  of  ballad-writers.  My 
Lord  Binning,  Sir  John  Clerk  of  Penicuik,  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot, 
Hamilton  of  Bangour,  and  others  contributed  to  the  taste  for 
lyrics  ;  while  Scots  melodies  passed  with  William  Thomson,  the 
former  hautbois  player  in  St.  Cecilia  concerts,  to  London, 
where  his  Orpheus  Caledonius  made  them  so  popular  that 
Gay,  in  his  Beggar  s  Opera  and  other  pieces,  set  his  songs 
to  these  tunes  to  the  delight  of  English  ears.^ 

Drinking  and  tavern-frequenting  form,  in  contrast  to  this 
artistic  aspect  of  society,  a  curious  characteristic  of  Scottish 

^  The  first  volume  of  the  Tea-Table,  Miscellany  appeared  in  1724,  the  fourth 
volume  in  1740.     Stenhouse's  Illustrations  of  Lyrics  and  Music  of  Scotland, 

'^  Preface  to  fourteenth  edition  of  Tea-  Table  Miscellany. 

^  In  Gay's  Beggar  s  Opera,  Pully,  and  Achilles,  there  are  many  of  these  tuneful 
airs  put  to  the  English  poet's  verses. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  103 

town  life.  In  Edinburgh,  accommodation  being  extremely- 
limited  in  the  dwelling-houses,  there  were  no  rooms  in  which 
to  transact  business  with  clients  or  to  give  entertainments  to 
friends.  Men  were  therefore  obliged  to  resort  to  the  tavern 
or  coffee-house,  where  the  charges  were  moderate  and  the 
rooms  were  convenient.^  In  these  hostelries  in  the  narrow 
wynds  off  the  High  Street  tradesmen  made  their  settlements, 
and  drank  with  their  customers  to  "  wet "  a  bargain.  Silver- 
smiths located  in  Parliament  Close  made  arrangements  in 
John's  Cofifee-House  to  supply  the  present  of  silver  spoons 
ordered  by  the  bridegroom  for  his  bride,  and  drank  on  the 
occasion  a  cup  of  ale  at  his  customer's  cost.  There  again  he 
met  his  customer  to  hand  over  the  spoons  just  arrived  from 
London — for  his  own  stock  was  small — and  then  they  drank 
at  his  own  expense,  as  the  bill  was  being  paid.  In  Paxton's 
dingy  tavern  magistrates  met  to  "  splice  the  rope  " — the  con- 
vivial term  for  the  entertainment  at  which  they  arranged  the 
details  for  a  hanging.  In  the  tavern  advocates  met  with  the 
writers,  when,  according  to  etiquette,  the  member  of  the  bar 
had  the  choice  of  the  morning  beverage — usually  sherry  in 
a  mutchkin  stoup — before  the  case  was  discussed  ;  ^  and,  if  the 
cause  was  won,  client,  lawyer,  and  advocate  fraternised  once 
more  to  celebrate  the  triumph.  So  essential  was  this  convivial 
process  that  the  first  and  last  items  in  a  lawyer's  account  were 
the  charges  of  the  tavern  bill.  In  the  simpler,  ruder  days, 
about  1730,  Lord  Kames  says  that  when  the  French  wine  was 
put  down  in  a  tin  pint  vessel  a  single  drinking-glass  served 
a  company  for  an  entire  evening,  and  the  first  persons  who 
called  for  a  fresh  glass  with  each  new  pint  were  considered 
too  luxurious.^ 

In  taverns  the  Lord  Provost  had  his  guests  to  dinner  and 
to  supper,  where  they  could  drink  deeper  and  longer  than 
in  his  private  house.*     During  the  annual   meetings   of  the 

'  Chambers'  Traditions  of  Edinburgh  j  '\^i\son'a  Memorials  of  Edinburgh. 
-  Somerville's  Own  Life  and  Times,  p.  373. 

*  Kames'  Sketches  of  Man,  1807,  i.  507.     A  Scots  pint  was  two  quarts  English. 

*  John  Coutts,  merchant  and  banker,  in  1743  was  the  first  Lord  Provost 
who  did  the  honours  of  the  city  by  entertaining  strangers  at  his  own  table. 
"  Unfortunately,  he  was  thus  led  into  excesses  of  the  table  and  other  indulgences 
which  at  length  hurt  his  constitution." — Forbes'  Memoirs  of  a  Banking  House,  p.  4. 


I04      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

General  Assembly  of  the  Church  they  were  swarming  with 
ministers  and  elders,  who,  after  long  parting,  quaffed,  with  a 
preliminary  grace,  their  friend's  good  health  at  meeting.  It 
might  happen  there  was  a  dispute  as  to  the  right  of  patronage 
between  two  lairds  or  lords  ;  and  the  rival  claimants  for  the 
right  to  appoint  the  parish  minister  each  sought  to  win 
over  to  his  side  the  ministers  before  whom  his  case  came  to 
be  tried  in  the  Assembly.  They  regaled  those  whose  votes 
they  wanted  freely  at  breakfast,  at  dinner,  or  any  other  time, 
in  a  tavern,  while  some  interested  lady  of  quality  also  invited 
them  to  tea ;  and  after  being  bribed  by  her  grace  and  her 
blandishments,  the  worthy  country  ministers  would  descend 
the  turnpike  stair  loud  in  praise  of  her  "  leddyship,"  and  pro- 
ceed to  vote  convincedly  in  favour  of  my  lord.  No  function 
was  so  great  that  it  could  not  be  celebrated  in  those  dark 
rooms  in  unsalubrious  wynds ;  no  functionary  was  so  lofty  in 
rank  and  position  that  he  could  not  reside  in  those  unpre- 
tentious places  of  entertainment.^  In  Clerihew's  or  Fortune's 
Inn  the  Lord  High  Commissioner  held  his  receptions,  and  gave 
his  dinner-parties  for  the  members  of  the  General  Assembly 
and  the  magnates  of  the  town,  and  thence  the  procession  in 
limp  dignity  walked  with  a  bevy  of  ladies  behind  to  the 
ecclesiastical  senate  in  St.  Giles'. 

Often,  however,  the  transaction  of  business  was  more  the 
excuse  than  the  reason  for  attendance  in  taverns.  It  was  a 
convivial  age,  and  it  was  a  drinking  society.^     When  St.  Giles' 

^  Simon  Lord  Lovat  interests  himself  in  securing  the  settlement  of  a  minister 
at  Dutfus,  by  winning  the  suffrages  of  some  ministers — "prettie  men"  he  knew 
personally — to  support  the  claim  of  Dunbar  of  Newton  to  be  patron  against  that 
of  Gordon  of  Gordonston.  Each  rival  party  feasts  the  ministers  at  the  General 
Assembly  to  bribe  them  to  give  their  votes  in  his  favour.  Dunbar's  agent  in 
Edinburgh  writes:  "[Mrs.  Dunbar]  had  a  multitude  of  the  ministers  at  tea 
every  day  with  her.  Sir  R.  Gordon  kept  open  table  at  Mrs.  Herdman's  for  the 
clergy  always  at  dinner,  and  they  were  bidden  resort  for  breakfast,  and  call 
for  what  they  pleased  on  his  account.  We,  on  the  other  hand,  invited  and 
entertained  as  many  ministers  as  we  could  for  three  or  four  successive  nights 
at  supper  in  a  tavern,  which  comes  to  no  small  expens  ;  but  since  so  much 
hath  been  wared  on  this  case,  and  now  that  it  was  to  receive  a  final  decision, 
I  thought  it  was  a  pity  to  lose  for  that." — Dunbar's  Social  Life  in  Morayshire, 
p.  253. 

'^  Sir  "William  Forbes  mentions  as  a  singular  evidence  of  the  steadiness  of 
Mr.  Coutts  the  banker,  that  he  did  not  recollect  to  have  ever  seen  him  but  once 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  105 

bells  played  out  half-past  eleven  in  the  morning  each  citizen 
went  to  get  a  gill  of  ale,  which  was  known  as  his  "  meridian," 
although  before  breakfast  he  had  paid  a  similar  visit,  and  in 
the  course  of  the  day  he  went  not  seldom  with  his  customers 
to  drink  over  their  bargains.  It  is  not  surprising  that  he  was 
unable  to  transact  his  business  at  times,  however  highly 
respectable  he  might  be.  In  the  evening  citizens  were  back 
at  their  familiar  haunt  to  spend  the  evening  with  congenial 
friends  over  a  simple  fare,  with  ale  or  claret,  till  the  town 
guard  beat  the  ten  o'clock  drum,  warning  all  decent  burghers 
to  withdraw  soberly  to  bed.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century 
the  civic  law  prohibiting  all  persons  from  being  in  taverns 
and  change-houses,  cellars,  etc.,  after  ten  o'clock  at  night, 
under  penalties  at  the  discretion  of  the  magistrates,  according 
to  the  degree  of  their  contumacy,^  was  a  rule  prudently  obeyed, 
and  as  the  tattoo  on  the  drum  echoed  up  the  High  Street  and 
down  the  Canongate  the  inns  and  cellars  disgorged  their  con- 
vivial contents,  and  in  varied  stages  of  inebriety  the  citizens 
departed  stumbling  on  the  uneven  causeway,  the  younger 
loiterers  repeating  with  unsteady  voice  the  refrain  of  the  last 
toping  song.  In  the  dark  streets  came  the  various  companies, 
young  clerks  and  roystering  bucks,  and,  not  infrequently,  old 
merchants  and  unsober  judges,^  who  also  made  the  wynds  vocal 
with  their  bacchanalian  strains.  It  was  a  risky  homeward 
journey,  for  it  was  the  dreaded  hour  for  precipitating  from 
the  windows  the  domestic  abominations,  and   before  the  cry 

in  the  counting-house|disg\used  with  liquor  and  incapable  of  transacting  business. 
— Memoirs  of  a  Banking  House,  p.  10. 

^  The  old  Municipal  Act  enjoined  that  "  whereas  the  not  obliging  persons  to 
repair  timeously  to  their  lodgings  at  night  is  one  of  the  greatest  causes  of  the 
abounding  drunkenness,  uncleanness,  night  revellings,  and  other  immoralities 
and  disorders  both  in  the  houses  and  in  the  streets,  and  is  a  great  hindrance 
to  sober  persons  in  the  worsliip  of  God  in  secret,  and  in  their  families  .  .  . 
therefore  they  prohibit  all  j»erson3  from  being  in  taverns,  cellars,  etc.,  after  10 
o'clock  at  night,  under  penalties  at  the  discretion  of  the  magistrates,  according 
to  degree  of  contumacy,"  etc.— Arnot's  J/ist.  of  Edinhuryh,  ji.  193. 
*  "When  the  noisy  ten  hours  drum 

Gars  a'  your  trades  gae  dandering  hame, 

Gie  a'  to  merriment  and  glee, 

Wr  sang  and  glass  they  Hey  the  power 

0'  care  that  wad  harass  tlie  hour." 
"  Auld  Reekie"  in  Fergusson's  Poems;  also  "  Caller  Ovsters." 


io6     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

"  Gardy-loo "  could  be  answered  by  the  deprecatory  cry  of 
"  Haud  yer  hand,"  the  awful  contents  had  fallen  on  cocked 
hat,  laced  coat,  and  wig.^ 

Later  in  the  century  the  ten  o'clock  signal  might  sound, 
but  the  topers  sat  on,  magistrates  being  the  most  habitual 
violators  of  their  own  laws,  and  men  drank  not  merely  "  from 
the  gill-bell  to  the  drum,"  but  long  after.  Clubs  there  were 
of  all  kinds — for  wits  and  cits,  for  solid  traders  and  spendthrift 
youths,  for  judges  and  clerks,  for  men  of  law,  men  of  letters, 
and  men  of  leisure  —  clubs  bearing  strange  names,  whose 
meaning  is  lost  and  fine  humour  has  evaporated ;  but  though 
the  company  varied,  the  purpose  was  ever  the  same.  It  must 
be  said  that  the  expenditure  of  time  was  the  chief  expense, 
for  the  favourite  dishes  were  cheap — minced  collops,  rizared 
haddocks  or  tripe,  a  fluke  or  roasted  skate  and  onions,  for 
which  the  sum  of  sixpence  was  charged.  The  "  Spendthrift 
Club "  enjoyed  itself  immensely  at  fourpence  half- penny  a 
head.^ 

The  meagre  comfort  and  cramped  room  in  the  lofty,  airless 
flats  can  alone  explain  the  delight  of  men  of  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions nightly  frequenting  the  convivial  retreats — dirty,  mean 
dens,  often  so  dark  that  even  by  day  candles  were  lighted  to 
enable  the  visitor  to  see  his  way.  Nightly  passing  into  the 
narrow  entry  of  Anchor  Close,  gentlemen  entered  the  portal  of 
Douglas's  tavern — having  inscribed  on  the  stone  above  the 
door  the  pious  old  legend,  "  0  Lord,  in  Thee  is  all  my  trust,"  ^ — 
and  they  went  through  a  dark  passage,  through  the  kitchen,  to 
the  dismal  apartment  of  their  frugal  orgies,  where  they  ordered 
"  a  crum  o'  tripe,  twa  three  peas,  and  bit  lug  o'  haddock."  In 
such  cellars  they  were  happy ;  lords,  lawyers,  lairds  met  and 
had  their  high  jinks,  and  the  mirth  was  loud  and  the  stories 

^  "How  long  can  it  be  suffered,"  wrote  John  Wesley  in  his  Journal  in  1762, 
"that  all  manner  of  filth  should  be  flung  into  the  streets  ?  How  long  shall  the 
capital  city  of  Scotland  and  the  chief  street  of  it  stink  worse  than  a  common 
sewer?" — Journal,  iii.  p.  52;  Humphrey  Clinker.  This  terrible  practice  was 
continued  to  the  end  of  the  century  in  spite  of  the  laws  of  magistrates  and  the 
curses  of  passengers. — Glasgow  Past  and  Present;  Bristed's  Tour  to  the  High- 
lands, 1803,  vol.  i.  p.  28. 

^  Chambers'  TradUions,  ii.  264  ;  R.  Fergusson's  Poems. 

^  This,  or  Clerihew's,  was  the  scene  of  Councillor  PleydeH's  "high  jinks"  in 
Guy  Maymering. 


TO  WN  LIFE— EDI NB  URGH  1 07 

and  jests  were  broad.^  In  one  room  might  be  assembled  judges 
relaxing  their  intellects  after  deciding  subtle  points  on  feudal 
law,  while  in  the  other  their  clerks  caroused,  retailing  their 
lordships'  Parliament  House  jokes  of  yesterday.  Lords  of 
Session  might  indulge  with  impunity  in  bacchanalian  nights, 
and  waken  with  brain  clear  to  unravel  an  intricate  case  of 
multiplepoinding  next  morning ;  but  such  ongoings  played  sad 
havoc  with  feebler  constitutions.  They  ruined  the  health  of 
poor  Eobert  Fergusson  the  poet,  and  were  more  than  even 
Robert  Burns  could  stand  in  too  frequent  and  too  late  sittings 
at  the  Crochallan  Club  or  in  the  tavern  of  John  Dowie — most 
suave  of  hosts — where  judges  resorted  for  their  "  meridian  "  in 
the  day,  and  impecunious  men  of  letters  assembled  at  night, 
sitting  in  the  narrow  little  room  ominously  named  the 
"  coffin."  2 

In  course  of  time  fashions  changed,  though  social  tastes 
remained  the  same  both  in  England  and  in  Scotland.  The 
hour  for  dining  up  till  about  1745  was  one  o'clock  ;  then  it  was 
advanced  to  two,  about  1760  to  three  o'clock,  and  in  fashionable 
circles  it  was  even  so  late  as  four  o'clock.^  As  the  dinner-hour 
became  later  the  style  of  the  repast  improved,  and  consisted  of 
two  courses,  displaying  more  variety  of  fare  and  more  skill  in 
culinary  art,  though  Capt.  Topham,  with  dismay  and  Angli- 
can loathing,  beheld  on  table  the  national  dishes  of  solan  goose, 
cocky  leeky,  sheep's  head,  and  haggis.  The  advancement  of 
the  hour  of  dinner  involved  not  a  few  changes  in  social  habits. 
No  longer  did  merchants  and  lawyers  return  as  of  old  to  their 
warehouses  or  their  law-courts  after  dining.     They  sat  leisurely 

^  Haunts — 

Where  ye  can  get 
A  crum  o'  tripe,  ham,  dish  o'  pease, 
An  egg,  or,  caiiler  frae  the  seas, 

A  fluke  or  whitin', 
A  nice  beefsteak  ;  or  ye  may  get 
A  guifl  butfed  lii'rring,  reisted  skate 
An'  ingans,  an'  (though  past  its  date) 

A  cut  o'  veal. — Chambers'  Minor  Antiqidties,  p.  10. 

So  Hunter  of  Blackness  describes  "  Dowie's  Tavern." — Kay's  Edinburgh  Portraits, 
ii.  3. 

^  It  is  said  that  one  of  Burns's  exclamations  on  his  deathbed  was,  "0 
these  Edinburgli  gentles — if  it  hadna  been  for  them  I  had  a  constitution  would 
have  stood  onythiug  !  " — Chambers'  Traditions,  ii.  241. 

^  Ramsay's  Scotland  a7id  Scotsmeii,  ii.  67. 


io8      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

over  their  wine,  in  which  port  gradually  took  the  place  of 
claret.  When  there  were  guests  the  company  sat  on  after  the 
ladies  had  retired  and  caroused  at  length,  and  did  not  break 
up  till  every  bottle  was  empty  and  every  guest  was  full.  The 
gentlemen  seldom  cared  or  were  able  to  appear  in  the  drawing- 
room,  and  how  they  got  home  after  leaving  the  convivial 
board,  and  back  to  their  lofty  flats  by  precipitous  stairs,  is 
more  than  we  can  tell  and  more  than  they  could  themselves 
remember. 

There  was  a  free  rollicking  life  in  these  old  days  amongst 
old  and  young.  Nor  did  ladies  hesitate  at  times  to  follow  the 
jocund  ways  of  the  stronger  sex.  In  company  with  gentlemen, 
in  wild  spirits  they  would  go  into  the  oyster  cellars  in  "  laigh  " 
shops,  dirty,  squalid  rooms  below  the  street,  and  by  the  flicker- 
ing light  of  guttering  tallow  candles  regale  themselves  on  raw 
oysters  and  porter,  and  dance  together  in  the  sordid  cell,  which 
echoed  with  their  laughter  and  the  clatter  of  their  high-heeled 
shoes — the  voice  of  Jean  Maxwell,  afterwards  Duchess  of 
Gordon,  loudest  and  merriest  of  all.  Then  escorted  home, 
they  allowed  their  partners  to  adjourn  once  more,  and  with 
punch  and  brandy  toast  their  "  flames "  with  hiccoughing 
chivalry.^  "  The  misses  are  the  most  rotten  part  of  the 
society,"  wrote  in  disapproval  the  most  proper  and  stately 
Lady  Elliot  of  Minto. 

But  in  spite  of  all  such  vagaries,  the  social  life  in  some  of 
its  moral  aspects  stands  out  conspicuously  pure  compared  with 
that  of  England.^  Scandals  of  married  life  were  few,  and  brought 
down  social  disgrace  when  they  did  occur,  and  the  character  of 
womanhood  in  the  middle  and  higher  orders  was  singularly 
honourable.  Speech  was  certainly  not  refined,  and  was  often 
strangely  lacking  in  delicacy ;  but  the  conduct  was  strict, 
though  the  tongue  seemed  free.     Girls,  town-bred  and  country- 

1  Chambers'  Traditions ;  Creech's  Fugitive  Pieces,  p.  340  ;  Fergusson's  Henry 
Erskine,  p.  119.  Topham's  Letters  from  Edinburgh,  pp.  128-131.—"  The  women, 
who,  to  do  them  justice,  are  much  more  entertaining  than  their  neighbours  in 
England,  discovered  a  great  deal  of  vivacity  and  fondness  for  repartee.  The 
general  ease  with  which  they  conducted  themselves,  the  innocent  freedom  of 
their  manners,  and  the  unaffected  good  nature,  all  conspired  to  make  one  forget 
that  we  were  regaling  in  a  cellar.  "^ — Songstresses  of  Scotland,  i.  213. 

^  Gentleman's  Mag.  1766  ;  Topham's  Letters. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB URGH  109 

bred  alike,  had  some  provincialism  peculiar  to  their  country 
and  the  homely  life  of  Scotch -bred  damsels.  They  had  a 
frankness  and  simplicity  which  showed  itself  in  retaining  the 
old  custom  of  greeting  ladies  and  gentlemen  with  a  kiss  as 
a  mere  courtesy — a  practice  which  shocked  Captain  Topham 
when  he  visited  Edinburgh  in  1774,  not  because  it  was 
unpleasant,  but  because  it  was  indiscriminate.^  But  the  charm 
of  their  manners,  their  face,  and  even  their  speech — in  spite  of 
its  Scots  accents  and  idioms — was  the  theme  of  every  English 
visitor,  who  was  supercilious  on  all  other  subjects  that  were 
Scottish.^  The  complexions,  fresh  and  free  from  paint ;  their 
manners,  natural  and  free  from  artifice ;  the  sprightliness  of 
their  talk ;  the  fineness  of  their  face  and  figure ;  the  firm 
tread  of  their  steps,  "  with  joints  extended  and  the  toes  out," 
— on  these  English  travellers  dilate  with  admiration  through- 
out the  century.  People  whose  minds  went  back  to  an  earlier 
time,  when  style  was  stiff  and  ways  were  prim  and  manners 
stately,  lamented  about  1770  that  these  were  passing  away, 
and  that  freer,  less  dignified  airs  and  ways  were  coming  into 
fashion.  But  then,  lovers  of  the  past  are  not  the  wisest  and 
most  impartial  judges  of  the  present. 

After  1760  there  came  more  country  gentlemen  and  noble- 
men to  reside  during  winter  in  Edinburgh  and  take  lodgings 
in  Forester's  Wynd  or  Jack's  Land.  The  rise  of  rents,  owing 
to  agricultural  improvements,  had  enabled  many  now  to  resort 
to  fashionable  society  and  city  life  who  had  been  secluded  in 
country  houses  on  narrow  incomes.^  These  came  with  their 
families  to  frequent  the  assemblies,  where  their  presence  was 
welcomed  by  the  bland  beams  of  Miss  Murray  ;  and  their 
presence  made  still  more  gay  St.  Cecilia's  Hall,  where  the 
music  of  Handel  and  Corelli  was  performed  on  violins  by 
gentlemen,  with   no   little  skill,  under  the  guidance  of  Lord 

^  Topliam's  Letters  ;  Sonierville's  Own  Life,  p.  371. 

*  Journerj  throwjh  Scotlaiid,  1729,  p.  276. — This  writer  had  "never  seen  in  any 
country  an  assembly  of  greater  beauties."  Burt's  Letters;  Topham's  Letters; 
Gentleman  s  Magazine,  1766,  p.  166  ;  Bristed's  Tour  to  the  Highlands,  ii.  322. 

'  Since  1769  the  Caucngate  included  amongst  its  inhabitants  2  dukes,  16 
earls,  2  dowager  countesses,  7  lords,  7  lords  of  session,  13  baronets,  4  com- 
manders of  forces,  4  men  of  eminence  (Adam  Smith,  Dr.  Gregory,  and  others). 
— Grant's  Old  and  New  Edinburgh,  ii.  p.  17. 


no      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Kelly — so  skilful  in  composing  minuets — whose  jovial,  coarse, 
purple  face  was  always  seen  at  these  amateur  performances. 
There  a  brilliant  company  met — vivid  in  Lord  Cockburn's 
memories  of  his  boyhood — gentlemen  with  their  side  curls, 
frills  and  ruffles  and  silver  buckles,  matrons  in  their  hoops 
and  splendid  satin,  girls  in  high-heeled  shoes,  powdered  hair, 
and  lofty  head-dresses.^ 


IV 

Besides  a  social  life  not  always  refined  and  dignified,  there 
gradually  appeared  signs  of  literary  interest,  though  they  were 
not  very  clear  or  brilliant.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century 
Edinburgh — which  implies  all  Scotland — was  well-nigh  destitute 
of  literature.  The  strife — political,  social,  and  religious — had 
been  too  long  and  loud  for  the  voices  of  poets  to  be  heard ; 
the  turmoil  of  parties  was  too  keen  for  quiet  culture  to 
flourish  ;  the  condition  of  society  was  too  poor,  and  the  taste  of 
the  country  too  rough,  for  letters  to  be  cultivated.  In  bygone 
generations  the  press  had  been  busy,  and  printing  had  been 
excellent ;  but  when  the  century  began,  except  a  few  pamphlets, 
and  inconsiderable  works  on  law,  or  politics  and  controversy, 
nothing  was  printed  except  poor  editions  of  favourite  devotional 
works  in  execrable  type.  The  widow  of  Anderson,  the  late 
king's  master  printer,  claimed  inheritance  of  his  patent,  giving 
a  practical  monopoly  of  printing  Bibles,  catechisms,  school- 
books,  editions  of  notable  divinity  and  Bibles,  with  power  to 
prevent  the  importation  of  editions  from  abroad.^  Vigorously 
she  prosecuted  publishers  in  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,  and  far-off 
Aberdeen  ;  although  it  was  vehemently  protested  that  her  folios 
of  Poole's  Annotations  and  Flavel's  works — the  great  authorities 
of  ministers — were  "  voluminous  blotches  "  ;  that  her  Bibles 
were  scandals — bad  type,  bad   spelling,   full   of   blasphemous 

^  Arnot's  Hist.  381  ;  Cockburn's  Memorials,  p.  29 ;  Chambers'  Traditions. 
"Indeed,"  wrote  Topham,  "the  degree  of  attachment  which  is  shown  to  music 
in  this  country  exceeds  belief.  It  is  not  only  the  principal  entertainment  but 
the  constant  topic  of  every  conversation,  and  it  is  necessary  not  only  to  be  a 
lover  of  it,  but  to  be  possessed  of  a  knowledge  of  the  science  to  make  oneself 
agreeable  to  society." — Letters  from  Edinburgh,  p.  396. 

^  Art  of  Printing,  by  James  Watson,  Edin.  1712, 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  1 1 1 

blunders,  shameful  mangling  of  Holy  Writ,  -  fearful  printing, 
where  italic  and  roman  were  confusedly  blended  in  the  same 
word,  and  lines  where  all  words  ran  into  each  other  to 
form  stupendous  hieroglyphics.^  No  wonder ;  for  she  kept  no 
corrector  of  the  press.  The  importunate  widow  only  gave  way 
when  law  and  patience  could  endure  her  exactions  no  longer. 
The  best  printers  of  the  time  were  Jacobites ;  but  in  many  a 
cellar  there  were  printers  working  old  machines  brought  over 
from  Holland,  to  whom  Whigs  and  Presbyterians  sent  their 
manuscripts,  which  came  forth  in  mean  pamphlets,  with  paper, 
type,  and  shape  miserable  to  behold. 

But,  after  all,  there  was  little  literature  to  suffer  from  these 
troubles.  Dr.  Archibald  Pitcairn,  scholar  and  physician  and 
wit,  got  his  verses  and  Latin  elegies  printed  on  sheets,  and 
handed  them  to  his  friends,  and  a  few  writers  of  little  im- 
portance had  a  furtive  publicity.  But  the  first  literature  worthy 
to  survive  came  from  the  little  wig-maker's  shop  at  the  sign 
of  the  Mercury  in  the  High  Street — satires  and  songs  that  were 
printed  on  broadsides,  and  sold  for  a  penny.  Since  1711 
Allan  Eamsay  had  been  writing,  making  wigs,  if  not  "  barberis- 
ing  "  customers  in  his  night-cap,  albeit  he  boasted  his  descent 
from  the  honourable  house  of  Dalhousie.  In  1721  his  col- 
lected poems  were  published ;  in  1725  his  Gentle  She'plierd 
appeared.  He  had  given  up  his  wigs  and  his  curling-tongs, 
and  transferred  the  books  he  had  begun  to  sell  to  the  flat  in 
the  Luckenbooths,  over  which  he  placed  his  new  sign — the 
heads  of  Ben  Jonson  and  Drummond  of  Hawthornden.  He 
filled  his  shelves  with  books  for  sale,  conspicuous  among  them 
his  edition  of  the  Gentle  She'phcrd  from  Euddiman's  press  in 
"  Turkey  clad  " ;  and  he  got  from  London  a  supply  of  works 
to  lend  out  on  his  forming  the  first  circulating  library  in  the 
country.  His  shop  was  the  resort  of  all  that  were  literary 
and  genial ;  his  presence  the  merriest  and  vainest  at  the  Easy 
Club,  where  "  men  of  parts "  recited  their  own  verses  and 
heard  mild  essays,  and  men  of  good  fellowship  sang  jovially, 
and  drank  copiously,  till  long  past  "  the  drum."     No  figure 

^  Here  are  samples  given  by  Principal  Lee:  "  Wliyshoulilitbethoug  tathing- 
incredible  w^you,  y''  God  should  raise  the  dead?"  "&adaniselcanieuutohini." 
— Memorial  of  Bible  Societies  in  Scotland,  1824,  p.  166. 


112      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

was  more  familiar  in  the  streets  than  the  poet's,  then  "  a 
dapper,  neat  little  man  of  five  feet  four  " ;  in  mellower  years, 
a  squat  form  with  big  paunch,  fair  round  wig  above  a  humor- 
ous countenance,  expressive  of  great  self-satisfaction.  Where 
could  Mr.  John  Gay,^  when  visiting  her  eccentric  Grace  the 
Duchess  of  Queensberry,  find  more  congenial  talk  than  in  the 
brother  poet's  shop  ?  There  the  English  bard — remembered 
as  "  a  pleasant  little  man  in  a  tye-wig,"  paunchy  like  his 
friend — exchanged  news  of  the  London  world  of  letters  for 
explanation  of  obscure  words  in  the  ex-wigmaker's  Scots,  and 
gazed  from  the  window  with  amusement  at  the  gay,  busy 
throng  that  promenaded  the  High  Street  from  one  to  two 
o'clock  each  day.^ 

Successful  as  Eamsay  was  with  his  poems,  which  brought 
fame  and  guineas  to  his  till,  there  was  scanty  encouragement 
for  letters — no  patrons  worth  an  author's  obsequious  dedication, 
few  book-lovers  to  subscribe  for  even  the  smallest  edition  of 
a  work,  no  public  that  cared  to  buy.  Wisely,  in  1725,  James 
Thomson  went  to  England  with  his  poem  on  Winter  in  his 
pocket.  Eleven  years  later  Smollett  set  off  to  London  by 
pack-horse  with  his  surgeon's  lancets  and  his  Regicide  in  his 
bag.  There,  too,  Malloch  had  gone  to  seek  scope  for  his  talents 
in  English  society,  and  had  changed  his  name  to  Mallet  to  suit 
the  English  ears.  Meanwhile,  booksellers  in  obscure  booths 
in  Parliament  Close  dealt  mainly  in  divinity — Durham  on 
Revelation,  The  Balm  of  Gilead,  Gray's  Sermons,  Rutherford's 
Letters,  historical  tractates,  vehement  pamphlets  of  scholars  and 
divines,  and  poorly  printed  classics  imported  for  schools  from 
Holland.  The  news  of  the  day  was  sparingly  conveyed  in 
puny  sheets  twice  a  week,  chief  of  them  being  the  Edinburgh 
Courant  (first  issued  in  1718),  in  the  interest  of  the  Whigs, 
and  the  Caledonian  Mercury  (which  appeared  in  1720), 
favoured  by  the  Tories.  But  it  was  difficult  to  extract  any 
interest  from  those  newspapers  that  gave  no  news,  containing 
a  London  letter  giving  meagre  tidings  of  what  had  happened 
long  before,  or  never  happened  at  all,  intelligence  of  a  vessel 

■^  Gentle   Shepherd,   with  Illustrations  of  Scenery,    2  vols.    1814  ;   Poems  of 
Allan  Ramsay,  2  vols.  1800. 

^  y^\\sQ\i'&  Memorials  of  Edinhtirgh,  i.  199. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  113 

arrived  with  timber  and  tallow  yesterday  at  Leith,  and  adver- 
tisements of  half  a  dozen  "  roups  "  next  week.^ 

Besides  men  of  pretty  wit  who  wrote  verses  and  gentlemen 
who  were  antiquaries,  there  were  some  threadbare  scholars — 
usually  portentous  pedants — who  had  failed  as  schoolmasters  or 
missed  a  church,  and  paid  their  lodgings  by  writing  vituperative 
pamphlets  on  grammar  or  politics  or  history.  Stumping  along 
the  causeway  was  William  Lauder,  an  excellent  scholar  and 
an  exceeding  scoundrel,  who  vainly  tried  for  posts  in  every 
school  and  university,  wrote  malignant  treatises,  and  left  for 
London,  where  he  published,  under  a  commendatory  preface  by 
Dr.  Johnson,  his  forged  Latin  originals  to  prove  Paradise  Lost 
a  vile  plagiarism,  much  to  the  excitement  of  literary  circles. 
Not  a  pleasant  man  to  look  on  as  he  passed  down  the  High 
Street,  with  his  wooden  leg,  "  sallow  complexion,  large  rolling 
eyes,  stentorian  voice,  and  sanguine  [that  is  villanous]  temper."  ^ 

Best  of  all  the  band  of  scholars  was  the  erudite  Jacobite 
Thomas  Ptuddiman,  who  had  been  brought  by  Dr.  Pitcairn 
from  his  schoolhouse  at  Laurencekirk  and  a  salary  of  £5 
paid  in  oatmeal.  Since  1700  he  had  lived  in  Edinburgh, 
beginning  his  career  with  an  income  of  £8  as  assistant  in 
Advocates'  Library,  in  dark  rooms  in  Milne  Square.  He  sold 
books  by  auction,  corrected  for  the  press,  taught  and  boarded 
pupils,  set  up  a  printing  press,  conducted  a  newspaper,  wrote 
historic  treatises  and  pamphlets  against  every  opponent  who 
belittled  the  merits  of  Arthur  Johnston's  Latinity  or  the 
iniquities  of  George  Buchanan's  politics,  issued  classics,  and 
compiled  schoolbooks  (among  them  his  famous  Latin  Rvdi- 
ments),  till  he  became  nearly  blind,  and  died  at  eighty-three 
in  1757.  No  more  worthy  man  lived  in  the  city  than  the 
old  scholar,  who  on  Sundays,  in  the  Episcopal  meeting-house 
in  Gray's  Close,  was  to  be  seen  with  "  his  curled  grizzle  wig, 
yellow  cloth  coat,  scarlet  waistcoat,  decorated  with  broad  gold 
lace,  and  shirt  with  very  deep  ruffles  " — for  he  had  become  a 
prosperous  man,  as  was  the  great  grammarian's  due. 

^  In  1739  the  Caledonian  Mercury,  printed  by  Ruddiman,  had  a  circulation 
of  only  1400  every  week. — Chalmers'  Life  of  Ruddiman,  p.  143,  where  is  much 
information  about  previous  Scots  newspapers.  Literary  Hist,  of  Glasgow  (Mait- 
land  Club). 

^  Chalmers'  Life  of  Ruddiman,  pp.  150,  274. 
VOL.  I  8 


114      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

But  of  real  literature,  save  the  poems  of  Eamsay,  there 
were  still  few  signs ;  till,  in  1738,  there  appeared  in  London  a 
Treatise  of  Human  Nature  by  David  Hume,  then  twenty-five 
years  old.  It  fell,  as  the  author  cheerfully  confesses,  "  still- 
born from  the  press  "  ;  which  did  not  discourage  him  from  pub- 
lishing, within  a  few  years,  those  philosophical  essays  which 
slowly  established  his  name  in  literature  and  his  place  in 
sceptical  philosophy,  creating  a  panic  fright  in  orthodox  circles, 
which  was  borne  with  placidity  by  the  simple-souled  and 
good-humoured  philosopher — verily,  the  "mildest -mannered 
man  that  ever  scuttled  "  a  creed.^ 

After  the  middle  of  the  century  there  was  a  wider  awaken- 
ing of  intellectual  life  in  Edinburgh,  and  in  Scotland  generally. 
Hume  was  busy  with  his  History  of  England,  which  began  to 
appear  in  1754;  his  friend  Home  was  writing  his  tragedy  of 
Douglas  in  his  manse  at  Athelstaneford ;  Dr.  Eobertson  was 
engaged  with  his  History  of  Scotland,  which  was  to  make  him 
famous  in  the  winter  of  1759.  Adam  Ferguson,  Hugh  Blair, 
Adam  Smith,  and  others,  were  soon  to  make  Edinburgh  a 
literary  centre  and  literature  a  matter  of  fashion  to  gentlemen. 
Engrossed  in  the  new  taste  for  English  letters,  society  cast  no 
regard  on  the  poor,  shabbily-dressed  copying  clerk  that  threaded 
his  way  through  the  High  Street  crowd  with  his  law  papers, 
who  for  but  two  years  was  to  write  Scots  poems  and  songs  of 
the  truest  ring,  before  Burns  wrote  them  surpassingly,  and 
after  too  fond  carouses  o'  nights,  was  to  die  in  1774  on  the 
straw  of  a  madhouse,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  when  ended 
the  short  pathetic  career  of  Eobert  Eergusson.  At  that  time 
the  effort  was  not  to  write  Scots,  but  to  learn  to  write  English. 
Home,  Eeid,  Eobertson  strove  indefatigably  to  clear  their  pages 
of  every  provincial  idiom,  and  every  Scotsman  anxiously  con- 
sulted English  friends  for  guidance  and  correction.  They  fairly 
succeeded,  but  not  without  pains,  for  Dr.  Beattie  owned  that 
"  we  who  live  in  Scotland  are  obliged  to  study  English  for 
books  like  a  dead  language  which  we  can  understand  but 
cannot  speak.  Our  style  smells  of  the  lamp  and  we  are  slaves 
of  the  language,  and  are  continually  afraid  of  committing  gross 

'  Burton's  Life  of  Hume,  2  vols.,  1840  ;  Letters  of  D.  Hume,  edited  by  Hill, 
p.  107. 


TOWN  LIFE— EDINBURGH  115 

blunders."  ^  Accordingly  the  author  of  the  Minstrel  had  pored 
over  Addison,  Swift,  and  Lord  Lyttleton  to  learn  to  write  this 
foreign  tongue — labours  which  met  their  reward,  when  he 
became  the  idol  of  blue-stockings  in  London,  and  fashionable 
circles  mistook  an  "  elegant  writer  "  for  a  profound  philosopher. 
Xaturally  these  authors  published  their  works  in  London, 
but  as  naturally  they  chose  countrymen  to  publish  them,  for 
eminent  Scots  booksellers  abounded  in  the  capital — Millar, 
Strahan,  and  Murray. 

Intellectual  activity  was  spreading  in  all  circles.  The 
Select  Society,  founded  by  the  versatile  and  energetic  Allan 
Eamsay,  the  portrait-painter,  changed  in  1755  to  the  Society 
for  Encouraging  Art,  Science,  and  Industry.  Noblemen,  lairds, 
judges,  ministers,  advocates,  engaged  in  these  meetings — not 
unconnected  with  suppers  and  claret — for  promoting  husbandry, 
linen  trade,  and  the  fostering  of  art — which  it  did  by  offering 
prizes  for  drawings  that  never  won  them.^  At  the  Bar  there 
were  men  of  wit  and  forensic  ability  who  afterwards  made 
themselves  conspicuous  on  the  bench  or  even  famous  in  the 
senate ;  there  were  men  of  science  and  philosophy  who  re- 
deemed the  University  from  the  obscurity  under  which  it  had 
lain  for  generations ;  and  ecclesiastics  of  distinction  who  by 
their  good-breeding  rebutted  the  wholesale  charges  of  uncouth- 
ness  against  the  clergy,  and  by  their  tolerance  were  to  relieve 
them  from  the  indiscriminate  taunt  of  fanaticism.  These  men 
were  well-known  figures  in  the  crowded  streets  of  Edinburgh. 
As  one  looked,  about  1771,  down  from  the  lofty  windows  in 
the  High  Street,  opposite  the  place  where  the  old  Market  Cross 
had  stood  near  St.  Giles',  and  where  the  citizens  and  townsfolk 
most  did  congregate,  there  were  more  men  of  note  to  be  seen 
in  an  afternoon  than  could  have  before  been  seen  in  a  century. 
There  appeared  the  ponderous  figure  of  David  Hume,  his  fat 
body  encased  in  brown  coat  and  waistcoat,  toiling  up  the 
street,  and  walking  with  him  Principal  Robertson,  in  his  single- 
breasted  black  coat,  cauliflower  wig,  cocked  hat,  and  clerical 
bands — divine  and  deist  on  the  best  of  terms.      Gently  through 

^  Letter  to  Lord  Glenbervie,  Forbes'  Life  of  Beattie,  vol.  ii.  243.     See  Letters 
of  David  Htuac  (edited  by  Hill),  p.  105. 

^  Allan  Cunningham's  i/tves  of  British  Painters  ;  Tytler's  Life  of  Lord  Karnes. 


ii6     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

the  crowd  glided  a  tiny  stooping  form,  with  arms  hanging  limp 
like  a  bird  with  shot  wings,  with  a  placid  sweet  face,  sur- 
mounted by  a  brown  wig  and  cocked  hat,  who  was  Dr.  John 
Erskine,  most  saintly  of  ministers  and  gentlest  of  saints.  Past 
him  would  brush  with  rough  jest,  in  loud  rasping  voice,  the 
truculent  figure,  clad  in  gown  and  wig,  of  Eobert  Macqueen 
(afterwards  Lord  Braxfield),  with  a  fierce  humour  glowering 
from  his  shaggy  eyebrows.  Among  the  throng  the  tall  figure 
of  Lord  Kames,  begowned  and  bewigged,  with  hat  under  his 
arm,  might  be  seen  stooping  in  eager  converse  with  a  very 
dirty  caddie,  from  whom  he  is  extracting  all  the  gossip  of  the 
town ;  and  Dr.  Adam  Smith,  who  had  crossed  by  ferry  from 
Kirkcaldy,  ascended  the  street  oblivious  and  vacant-eyed,  his 
lips  moving  in  that  almost  audible  smiling  converse  with  him- 
self, which  made  an  old  woman  mistake  him  for  an  idiot,  and 
exclaim  to  her  neighbour  in  pity,  "  Ay,  an'  he's  weel  put  on 
too."  Dr.  Hugh  Blair  was  there,  self-complacent,  self-con- 
scious, with  wig  perfect  in  every  curl,  and  dress  in  fine 
precision ;  and  there  strode  by  Dr.  Alexander  Webster,  the 
brightest  talker,  most  unctuous  preacher,  steadiest  drinker, 
most  able  business  man  of  the  old  city,  who  made  the  plans 
for  the  new  town,  loved  by  the  saints  of  the  Tolbooth  Kirk 
and  the  sinners  of  the  High  Street  flats.  In  his  sedan-chair 
was  borne  the  great  physician  Dr.  Cullen,  known  everywhere 
by  his  strange  pendulous  lips,  in  a  huge  peruke  beneath  his 
capacious  hat,  his  big  coat  flaps  sticking  out  with  the  huge 
sand-glass  by  which  he  counted  his  patients'  pulses.^  Dr. 
Black,  the  great  chemist,  went  on  his  way  to  lecture  at  the 
College,  greeting  old  cronies  with  a  charming  smile  on  his 
benign  face ;  and  if  the  rain  was  threatening.  Lord  Monboddo, 
the  learned  whimsical  judge  (whose  Origin  of  Language  had 
just  appeared,  showing  how  mankind  had  gradually  shed  their 
primeval  tails),  put  his  judge's  wig  into  a  sedan-chair  to  keep 
it  dry,  while  he  himself  walked  quietly  home  in  the  rain ;  for 
not  till  1782  did  Mr.  Alexander  Wood,  the  surgeon,  appear 
with  the  first  umbrella,  a  huge  gingham  apparatus,  in  Edin- 
burgh streets.^     James  Boswell  came  by  from  James's  Court, 

^  Chambers'  Traditions,  i.  105. 
^  Kay's  Edinburgh  Portraits,  ii.  368. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  1 17 

fussy  of  manner,  rubicund  of  face,  with  a  self-important 
look  bent  on  some  unimportant  errand,  thinking  over  a  song 
for  the  "  Soaping  Club  "  that  night.  These  and  many  others 
jmss  along  of  a  spring  afternoon  in  1771,  to  join  the  gossiping 
cluster  of  citizens  and  merchants  and  bankers  and  bucks,  who 
stood  with  their  hands  in  their  muffs. 

Others  resorted  to  Creech's  bookshop  and  library,  in  the 
premises  at  the  Luckenbooths,  below  old  Allan  Eamsay's  flat ; 
there  gathered  daily  the  quidnuncs  of  the  town,  to  see  the 
newest  books  from  London,  and  to  hear  of  the  newest  arrivals 
from  the  country,  or  to  chat  with  the  worthy  bibliopole  as  he 
stood  on  the  steps.  At  supper-parties  of  judges  and  nobles, 
or  eminent  lawyers,  were  to  be  met  the  best  of  good  company 
— Dr.  Adam  Ferguson  ;  Dr.  Blacklock,  the  blind  poet ;  Dr. 
Gregory ;  John  Home,  when  my  Lord  Bute  could  set  him  free 
from  his  sight ;  Lord  Elibank,  most  cultivated  and  literary  of 
peers,  when  he  spent  the  winter  in  Scotland ;  Henry  Erskine, 
brightest  and  wittiest  of  men  at  the  bar ;  and  Andrew  Crosbie, 
the  Councillor  Pleydell  of  Guy  Mannering,  great  as  a  pleader, 
as  a  talker,  and  as  a  toper.  At  these  reunions  in  Edinburgh 
flats,  over  collops,  boiled  fowls,  and  port,  met  the  literati — 
whom  deep-drinking  Lord  Kellie,  with  his  purple-faced  laugh, 
nicknamed  the  eaterati}  Ladies  were  there  who,  all  unknown, 
had  written  songs  that  all  society  was  singing.  Lady  Anne 
Lindsay  heard  her  own  ballad  "  Auld  Eobin  Gray  "  sung  to 
the  accompaniment  of  the  harp,  and  applauded  by  companies 
who  were  unaware  that  the  bright  blushing  girl  in  the  corner 
had  written  it ;  and  as  she  looked  down  from  the  window  of 
the  lofty  flat  where  the  old  Lady  Balcarres  dwelt,  she  could 
see  a  company  of  dancing  dogs  acting  in  the  streets  the  little 
song-drama.^  At  card-parties  of  quality  Miss  Jean  Elliot, 
possessed  of  a  stately  carriage  becoming  her  family,  often 
listened  to  her  own  exquisite  "  Flowers  of  the  Forest,"  ("  I've 
heard  them  lilting  "),  on  whose  authorship  she  too  kept  dignified 
silence ;  for  with  aristocratic  reserve  these  ladies  cared  as  little 

^  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  ii.  320. 

-  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  ii.  393  ;  Songstresses  of  Scotland,  i.  207,  ii.  24.  With 
equal  success  Lady  Wai-dlaw  of  Pitreavie,  wlio  died  in  1727,  concealed  her 
authorship  of  HardyniUc,  which  for  over  a  century  literary  experts  lauded  as  an 
ancient  ballad  of  rare  beauty. 


ii8     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

to  join  the  herd  of  writers  as  Miss  Oliphant  of  Gask,  who 
kept  the  secret  for  forty  years  of  having  written  "  The  Land 
o'  the  Leal " — content  to  write  "  by  stealth,  and  blush  to  find 
it  fame."  No  more  intelligent  company  was  to  be  found  than 
in  the  rooms  of  poorly -jointured  ladies — such  as  that  of 
Dowager  Lady  Balcarres,  who  received  her  company  in  the 
bedroom,  with  a  neat  coverlet  over  the  bed,  while  against  one 
of  the  posts  lent  her  consequential  servant  John,  who  handed 
the  tea-kettle  and  joined  in  the  conversation.^ 

The  growth  of  literature,  in  which  was  required  the  art  of 
writing  English, — the  writers  addressed  an  English  public — 
and  the  more  frequent  communication  between  England  and 
Scotland,  made  both  the  lettered  and  the  fashionable  classes  pain- 
fully conscious  that  their  vernacular  had  sunk  from  a  national 
language  of  which  to  be  proud,  into  a  provincial  dialect  of  which 
to  be  ashamed.  Of  old  every  one  spoke  Scots;  it  was  broad, 
though  not  therefore  vulgar,  for  there  was  a  world  of  difference 
between  the  tongue  as  spoken  by  a  gentleman  and  as  spoken 
by  a  ploughman ;  and  from  the  lips  of  well-bred  ladies  it  fell 
pleasingly,  if  not  quite  intelligibly,  on  southern  ears.  Now,  how- 
ever, it  was  awkward  for  a  man  of  letters  to  lapse  into  solecisms, 
and  for  a  man  of  fashion  to  flounder  hopelessly  in  Scotticisms. 
The  member  for  a  Scottish  county  felt  himself  uncouth  in 
London  society,  and  when  he  rose  in  the  House  of  Commons 
he  dreaded  the  supercilious  smile  at  the  sound  of  an  unknown 
tongue.  Advocates  pleading  before  the  Lords  saw  that  they 
created  amazement  by  the  strange  pronunciation  of  Latin,  and 
still  stranger  pronunciation  of  the  king's  English.^  When  the 
Hon.  Charles  Townshend,  who  had  married  the  Dowager  Lady 
Dalkeith,  had  been  admitted  a  member  of  the  Edinburgh 
Select  Society,  which  consisted  of  the  foremost  men  of  ability 
and  position,  he  protested  that  he  could  not  understand  what 

^  Chambers'  Thrciplaiids  of  Fingasl.,  p.  58. 

2  Three  Lords  of  Justiciary  were  ordered  to  appear  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of 
Lords  about  the  Porteous  mob.  "Brethren,"  said  Lord  Dun  pompously,  as  he 
supped  with  his  fellow  judges,  "  I  am  sorry  to  say  neither  of  you  will  be  under- 
stood by  the  House  to-morrow.  I  am,  you  well  know,  in  a  dilferent  situation, 
having  made  the  English  language  my  particular  study."  To-morrow  came,  when 
(Lord  Kames  said)  Lord  Royston  was  hardly  intelligible  ;  as  for  my  Lord  Dun, 
"  Deil  ae  word  from  beginning  to  end  did  the  English  understand  of  his  speech." 
— Ramsay's  Scotland  and  Scotsmen,  ii.  543. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  1 1 9 

they  said  in  their  debates,  and  cruelly  suggested  that  an 
interpreter  should  be  employed.  "  Why,"  asked  he,  "  can  you 
not  learn  to  speak  the  English  language  as  you  have  learned 
to  write  it  ? "  for  it  had  been  the  anxiety  of  his  literary  friends 
Hume  and  Eobertson  to  weed  out  every  provincialism  from 
their  historical  pages. 

In  1761  it  happened  that  Mr.  Thomas  Sheridan,^  actor, 
stage-manager,  and  elocutionist,  came  to  lecture  on  rhetoric  and 
the  art  of  speaking,  and  delivered  twelve  lectures  in  St.  Paul's 
Episcopal  Chapel.  To  that  consecrated  but  not  solemnising 
building  in  the  dismal  Carrubber's  Wynd  resorted  about  three 
hundred  gentlemen,  nobles,  judges,  divines,  advocates,  and 
men  of  fashion.  With  the  docility  of  children  they  gave  ear 
to  these  pretentious  discourses,  in  which  the  self-confident 
orator,  in  rich  Irish  brogue,  taught  pure  English  pronunciation 
to  a  broad -Scots -speaking  assembly.  Gravely  they  listened 
as  he  profoundly  explained  how  "  the  next  progression  of 
number  is  when  the  same  note  is  repeated ;  but  in  such  a 
way  that  one  makes  a  more  sensible  impression  on  the  ear  than 
the  other  by  being  more  forcibly  struck  and  therefore  having 
a  greater  degree  of  loudness — as  t%-tum,  or  tum-ti-tfim-tt,  and 
when  the  weak  notes  precede  a  more  forcible  one,  as  ta-tH-tuiii ; 
or  when  they  follow  as  tum-t%-ti,  tu7n-t%-t%"  and  so  on.  Care- 
fully, meekly,  his  audience  practised  the  "  tum-ti-ti-tum "  in 
their  rooms,  with  all  the  success  that  would  attend  a  plough- 
man's earnest  efforts  to  learn  a  gavotte.  Availing  himself  of 
the  zeal  of  the  hour,  Mr.  Sheridan  adroitly  secured  subscriptions 
for  the  forthcoming  publication  of  his  stimulating  lectures, 
which  only  saw  the  light  after  persistent  dunning  by  the 
subscribers,  who  got  their  copies  when  their  patience  and  their 
Anglican  accents  were  wearing  away. 

Meanwhile,  full  of  enthusiasm,  the  members  of  the  Select 
Society,  originated  chiefly  for  literary  discussion,  changed  its 
name  finally  into  the  "  Society  for  Promoting  the  Eeading  and 
Speaking  of  the  English  Language  "  ; "  and  next  year,  at  their 

^  Ritchie's  Life  of  David  Hume,  1807,  p.  95  ;  Scottish  Journal,  ii.  ;  Camp- 
bell's Lives  of  the  Lord  Chancellm-s,  1857,  vii.  p.  364  ;  Scots  Magazine,  1761, 
p.  391. 

'^  The  prospectus  is  not  encouraging  :  "As  the  intercourse  between  this  part  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  capital  daily  increases,  gentlemen  have  long  been  sensible 


I20     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

request,  Sheridan  sent  a  teacher  from  London  to  instruct  them  in 
correct  pronunciation.  Young  advocates  like  Wedderburn,  and 
mature  judges  like  Karnes ;  noble  lords — Galloway,  Eglinton, 
Errol ;  literary  men  like  Hume,  Blair,  and  Eobertson,  all  began 
to  try  to  syllable  their  words  aright,  to  the  sarcastic  amuse- 
ment of  the  old-fashioned  at  their  efforts  to  rid  themselves 
of  the  old  tongue  without  being  able  to  learn  the  new.  In 
two  years  members  seceded  from  the  transformed  society, 
subscriptions  fell  into  arrears,  and  the  committee  with  sulky 
dignity  reported  that  the  condition  of  affairs  "  serves  to  con- 
firm an  observation  that  has  sometimes  been  made  that  in. 
Scotland  every  dismterested  plan  of  public  utility  is  slighted 
as  soon  as  it  loses  the  charm  of  novelty."  Most  of  these 
gentlemen  in  despair  spoke  broad  colloquial  Scots  to  their 
dying  day,  however  carefully  they  might  speak  decent  English 
in  fine  southern  society,  at  the  bar,  or  in  the  pulpit.  The 
vernacular  was  racy  on  the  lips  of  Henry  Erskine,  kindly  and 
genial  in  the  talk  of  Principal  Eobertson,  delightfully  vivid 
and  expressive  in  the  converse  of  high-bred  dames  possessed 
of  astringent  humour,  while  it  added  grotesqueness  to  the 
preposterous  utterances  of  Lord  Hermand,  and  appropriate 
brutality  to  those  of  Lord  Braxfield. 

As  time  wore  on  the  broad  Scots  wore  off  from  the  talk  of 
men  of  education  and  ladies  of  refinement.-^  The  younger  and 
more  ambitious  by  1770  were  trying  to  prune  their  conversa- 
tion of  Scots  phrases,  and  spoke  English,  as  the  Duke  of 
"Wellington  spoke  French,  "  with  a  great  deal  of  courage,"  and 
most  of  them  succeeded  enough  to  merit  the  tepid  praise 
earned  by  James  Boswell  from  Johnson  when  he  asked  his 
illustrious  friend  what  he  thought  of  his  speech :  "  Sir,  your 
pronunciation  is  not  often  disagreeable."  Nor  did  the  Scots 
accents  fall  unpleasantly  on  the  English  ears,  especially  when 

of  the  disadvantage  under  whicli  tliey  labour  from  the  imperfect  knowledge  of 
the  English  language  and  the  impropriety  with  which  they  speak  in.  .  .  .  Experi- 
ence hath  convinced  Scotsmen  that  it  is  not  impossible  for  persons  born  and 
educated  in  this  country  to  acquire  such  as  to  write  it  with  considerable  purity. 
But  with  regard  to  speaking  with  propriety  it  has  generally  been  taken  for 
granted  that  there  was  no  prospect  of  attempting  anything  with  any  prospect 
of  success." — Ritchie's  Life  of  Hume,  1807,  p.  95. 
^  See  ante,  p.  76. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  1 2 1 

it  fell  from  pretty  lips.  After  the  memorable  visit  of  the 
great  lexicographer  to  Ediuburgh  in  1773,  immense  pains 
were  taken  by  governesses  and  teachers  in  private  and  public 
ladies'  schools  to  instruct  their  pupils  in  the  most  correct  and 
refined  manner  of  pronouncing  syllables  and  words.  The 
efforts  were  more  confusing  than  successful. 


V 

As  the  broad  Scots  was  narrowing,  the  narrow  old 
religion  was  broadening :  owing  very  much  to  the  same 
causes — contact  with  English  life,  and  larger  intercourse  with 
the  world.  The  strict  and  inquisitorial  discipline  of  former 
times  could  not  be  maintained  if  there  had  been  any  disposition 
to  exercise  it  in  a  population  which  was  increasing,  till  at  the 
close  of  the  century  it  numbered  above  80,000  people.  Up 
to  1760  the  Sunday  was  a  day  of  rigorous  observance,  of  deep 
solemnity,  when  the  streets  were  deserted  save  in  multitudinous 
going  to  and  coming  from  the  worship  where  attendance  was 
obligatory  as  a  religious  duty  and  as  a  badge  of  respectability 
— even  David  Hume,  the  arch-infidel,  was  to  be  seen  "  sitting 
under"  Principal  Robertson  in  Greyfriars'.  By  1780  or  1790, 
however,  a  great  change  had  come  over  the  religious  habits  of 
society,  and  the  pews,  which  of  old  had  been  always  sedately 
full,  were  deserted  by  men  of  fashion.  Henry  Mackenzie — the 
"  Man  of  Feehng  "  ^ — contrasts  the  days  of  his  boyhood,  when 
"  I  well  remember  the  reverential  silence  of  the  streets,  the 
tip-toe  kind  of  fear  with  which  when  any  accident  prevented 
my  attendance  at  church  I  used  to  pass  through  them," 
with  the  later  and  regardless  days  of  the  century,  when  the 
streets  were  noisy  and  gay,  and  the  church  was  neglected  by 
the  gentry ;  when,  unabashed  and  unrebuked,  the  barbers  bore 
the  wigs  to  their  customers  and  came  to  shave  them  on  the 
Lord's  Day  ;  and  gentlemen  even  dared  to  play  cards  on  Sunday, 
to  the  subversion  of  all  pious  traditions  and  propriety." 

^  Mackenzie's  Life  and  Writings  of  John  Home,  p.  44. 

-  Among  the  unpublished  MSS.  of  Dr.  Carlyle  of  Inveresk  is  a  "Letter 
addressed  to  Mr.  Mirror,"  evidently  intended  to  appear  in  the  Mirror,  purporting 
to  be  dated  from  Perthshire,  April  1,  1779,  by  a  gentleman  recently  returned 


122      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

The  theatre  also  had  greatly  lost  its  stigma,  and  the  clergy 
had  ceased  to  ban  it.     In  fact,  when  Mrs.  Siddons  came  to 
act,    ministers     went    in     such    numbers    that    the    General 
Assembly,  then  sitting,  was  half-deserted  by  its  members  ;  and 
pious  sober-minded  citizens  were  induced  to  go,  though  with 
fear  and  trembling,  to  the  playhouse  for  the  first  time,  for 
the  tragedy   queen   had  made  it   respectable.^     Other   tastes 
had    changed,  though    not   always   for    the    better — cockpits 
having  become  the  favourite  resort  of  gilded  youth  and  sporting 
men,  and  "  mains "  having  become   the  occasions  of  ruinous 
gambling.     Mr.  William  Creech,  who  in  his  bookshop  in  th.e 
Luckenbooths  met  with  wits,  citizens,  and  literati,  and  from 
his  windows,  which  looked  down  the  long  High  Street,  watched 
a  tide  of  humanity  as  ever-flowing  if  not  so  varied  as  that 
which  rejoiced  Dr.  Johnson  in  Fleet  Street,  saw  and  heard 
much  to  bewail  about  1780-1790,  in  a  degenerate  age^ — 
churches   ill -frequented   and   church   collections   diminishing, 
people  that  were  worldly  and  ministers  that  were  lax  in  their 
visitations ;    but  at  any  rate  he  does  own    that   immoderate 
drinking  and  "pushing  the  bottle"  was  in  1790  going  out  of 
fashion  with  educated  people,  "  pressing  "  was  not  so  common, 

from  the  continent : — "  Mr.  Mirror,  it  was  with  great  pleasure  that  I  observed  in 
one  of  your  papers  a  side  thrust  against  playing  at  cards  on  Sunday,  which  with 
many  other  modes  of  vice  we  have  learned  from  the  people  on  the  Continent,  and 
which  I  am  very  sorry  to  see  prevails  much  more  amongst  us  now  than  it  did 
twenty  years  ago  when  I  left  the  country.  ...  I  had  heard  before  I  returned 
to  my  native  land  that  there  was  a  great  change  with  respect  to  the  rigorous 
observation  of  the  Sabbath,  and  I  found  it  so  on  experience.  A  man  may  now 
shave  himself  on  Sunday  morning,  and  powder  his  hair  and  walk  after  church 
time,  and  even  visit  his  neighbours  without  giving  offence,  which  was  very  far 
from  being  the  case  in  my  youth.  But  I  little  dreamed  that  it  would  have  been 
possible  for  Presbyterians  to  have  so  far  lowered  the  ideal  of  the  morality  of  the 
Sabbath  as  to  have  played  at  cards  on  any  part  of  that  day.  ...  I  am  one  of 
those  who  think  it  very  wrong  to  shock  the  people  with  whom  I  live.  ...  I  go 
to  the  parish  church  on  Sunday  lest  the  people  should  think  me  a  heathen  or  an 
infidel,  and  I  continue  to  say  grace  the'  it  be  left  off  as  ungenteel  by  many  of 
my  neighbours." 

1  Jackson's  Hist,  of  Scot.  Stage,  p.  125  ;  Kay's  Original  Portraits,  i.  132.  A 
staid  old  lawyer  was  persuaded  to  visit  the  theatre  for  the  first  time  in  his  life 
to  see  Mrs.  Siddons  in  Venice  Preserved.  When  the  catastrophe  came  he  turned 
to  his  daughter  and  asked  if  this  was  a  comedy  or  a  tragedy  ?  "  Bless  me  !  papa, 
a  tragedy  to  be  sure!"  "So  I  thought,"  remarked  her  father;  "for  I  am 
beginning  to  feel  a  commotion." 

^  Fugitive  Pieces,  p.  108. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  1 23 

and  every  one  was  allowed  at  table  to  do  as  he  pleased  in 
filling  or  drinking  his  glass. 

While  society  was  making  its  own  rules  for  the  morals 
and  manners  of  fashionable  circles,  a  decrepit  police  was  trying 
to  maintain  good  order  in  the  city,  and  to  suppress  crime.  It 
might  be  supposed  that  in  a  town  abounding  in  intricate  wynds, 
dingy  closes,  and  dark  stairs,  and  with  a  large  class  steeped  in 
poverty,  lawlessness  and  robbery  would  be  common.  But, 
on  the  contrary,  there  seems  to  have  prevailed  a  remarkable 
immunity  from  crime.  The  fact  that  every  one  knew  every- 
body, the  intimate  contact  of  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor, 
may  have  served  as  a  sort  of  social  detectivism,  and  made  theft 
rare,  by  the  comparative  ease  with  which  culprits  could  be 
watched.  The  charge  of  order  and  the  preservation  of  the 
lieges  was  committed  to  a  small  and  effete  band  of  city  guards, 
consisting  of  120  men  all  told — very  few  of  whom  were  kept 
on  duty,  the  others  acting  more  usefully  as  porters  or  scavengers. 
A  long  low  building  that  blocked  and  disfigured  the  High 
Street,  opposite  the  Tolbooth,  formed  the  headquarters  of  these 
old  Highlanders,  most  of  them  discharged  soldiers,  who  guarded 
the  lives  and  adorned  the  processions  of  the  city,  armed  with 
ineffectual  Lochaber  axes.  They  were  sources  of  mirth  rather 
than  of  safety,  these  much  provoked  worthies,  nicknamed 
the  "  town  rottens "  (or  "  rats "),  who  never  could  catch  an 
offender,  and  spluttered  their  futile  Gaelic  oaths  at  urchins 
who  sorely  mocked  them.^  Outside  the  shed  in  which  they 
were  stationed  was  a  wooden  horse,  which  drunkards  were 
made  ignominiously  to  bestride ;  and  under  the  shed  was  a 
cellar,  to  which  disturbers  of  the  civic  peace  were  consigned 
at  night. 

Such  a  system  of  police,  which  might  have  served  in  a 
little  town,  had  become  ludicrous  long  before  they  were  super- 
seded by  more  stalwart  men  to  look  after  a  city  with  a 
wider  radius  and  large  population.  Yet  in  spite  of  all,  through- 
out the  century — as,  indeed,  through  all  the  country — there 
were  very  few  serious  offences.  Housebreaking  and  robbery  are 
said  to  have  been  extremely  rare,  and  with  complete  sense  of 
security   people    seldom    thought  of   locking    their    doors    at 

^  Chambers'  Traditions ;  Kay's  Portraits ;  Wilson's  Meviorials. 


124     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

night.^  Except  in  such  seasons  as  when  the  notorious  Deacon 
Brodie  and  his  confederates  perpetrated  their  burglaries  (1783- 
1*787),  there  was  little  danger  felt.  In  the  Tolbooth  prison, 
among  its  few  inmates  were  more  debtors  than  criminals ;  and 
years  passed  by  without  any  execution,  though  robbery  was 
a  capital  offence.  Probably  the  chief,  most  venial,  and  most 
prevaihng  offence  was  drunkenness.^ 

By  1770  there  were  signs  setting  in  of  the  approaching 
transformation  of  Edinburgh — in  the  city  and  society.  The 
town,  which  had  remained  within  its  ancient  bounds  and  walls 
for  250  years,  was  becoming  too  circumscribed  for  its  popula- 
tion, which  filled  the  streets  that  had  grown  in  height  instead 
of  length ;  spaces  behind  the  Canongate  and  High  Street,  once 
occupied  by  pleasant  gardens,  had  long  been  built  over  by 
wynds  and  courts,  and  no  more  room  was  left  for  its  increasing 
inhabitants  to  build  on.  About  1760  there  had  been  erected 
squares  of  "  self-contained  "  houses  south  of  the  town,  to  which 
some  richer  families  resorted ;  and  yet,  though  only  a  few 
minutes'  walk  from  their  business  and  their  friends,  Brown 
Square  and  George  Square  were  considered  terribly  out  of  the 
way,  so  that  gentlemen  required  to  take  refreshment  in  the 
tavern  before  the  journey.  In  1767  the  North  Bridge  was 
finished,  and  access  to  a  new  district  became  easier,  while  old 
merchants  spoke  with  astonishment  about  the  enormous  rents 
of  £30  or  £40  which  ambitious  rivals  were  paying  for  shops 
beside  the  "  Brig."  Plans  by  that  time  had  been  formed  for 
streets  on  the  other  side  of  the  "  Nor'  Loch "  (the  lake  or 
swamp  now  the  Princes  Street  Gardens)  ;  but  slow  progress  was 
made   till   1780,  when   new  streets  were   springing   up,  and 

1  Creech's  Fagitive  Pieces,  pp.  106-108.  "During  the  winter  1790-92  there 
was  not  a  robbery,  housebreaking,  shojibreaking,  nor  a  theft  publicly  known  to 
the  amount  of  forty  shillings  within  the  city  of  Edinburgh  ;  not  a  person  accused 
of  a  capital  crime,  and  in  jail  only  twenty  for  petty  offences,  and  nineteen  con- 
lined  for  small  debts." 

^  The  extent  to  which  drinking  (especially  of  Avhisky,  which  had  taken  the 
Xtlace  of  the  less  potent  ale)  had  increased  may  be  estimated  by  the  fact  that 
in  1790,  in  a  population  of  80,000,  there  were  2011  licensed  and  unlicensed 
shops  for  retailing  spirituous  liquors,  1611  being  licensed.  Out  of  this  number 
only  159  had  taken  out  licenses  for  selling  foreign  spirits,  so  that  all  the  rest 
must  have  been  employed  in  providing  whisky  for  the  lower  orders. — Arnot's 
Hist,  of  Edinhurgh,  p.  335. 


TO  WN  LIFE—EDINB  URGH  1 2  5 

houses  in  Princes  Street,  George  Street,  and  Queen  Street  were 
advancing  westward.  From  the  old  flats  descended  in  gradual 
exodus  persons  of  position  and  quality,  who,  instead  of  a  modest 
rental  of  £15  or  £20,  were  able  now,  through  advancing 
wealth  and  larger  incomes,  to  pay  £100  for  mansions  which 
contrasted  strangely  with  the  mean  and  dirty  abodes  from 
which  they  emerged.  They  left  those  dwellings  where  there 
had  been  little  cleanliness  or  comfort,  where  fetid  air  brought 
sickness  and  death  to  young  lives,  where  infectious  diseases 
passed  like  wildfire  through  the  inmates  of  a  crowded  common 
stair,  bringing  havoc  to  many  a  household.^ 

Town  and  town-life  underwent  a  revolution,  and  many  a 
quaintly  pleasant  and  picturesque  feature  of  Scottish  society  soon 
became  a  mere  memory.  Fortunately,  the  old  taverns  lost  their 
"  genteel  "  company,  and  gentlemen  met  temperately  at  home  in 
their  spacious  dining-rooms,  instead  of  in  miserable  cellars,  over 
their  mutchkin  and  glass.  The  sedan-chairs  were  becoming 
worn  out,  like  the  chairmen  who  had  carried  in  them  so  many 
fair  occupants,  with  towering  powdered  headdresses,  to  the  dance, 
and  for  6d.  an  hour  had  shaken  their  burdens  over  the  cause- 
way, and  up  closes  where  no  carriage  could  enter.  These  were 
discarded  for  hackney  coaches  that  drove  swiftly  along  hand- 
some though  unfinished  streets ;  and  by  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  last  surviving  private  chair,  which  bore 
along  the  dignified  Miss  Jean  Elliot,  was  an  object  of  curiosity.^ 
Other  changes  came — some  that  were  not  grateful.  The  de- 
lightful old  simplicity  of  manners,  the  unceremonious  friend- 
liness, the  genial  gatherings  around  the  tea-table,  where  the 
company  discussed  their  "  fifty  friends  within  five  hundred 
yards  " ;  ^  the  famihar  intercourse  and  sympathy  between  rich 

^  Sir  W.  Scott's  Provincial  Antiquities :  Edinburgh. 

^  Tytler  and  Watson's  Songstresses  of  Scotland,  i.  221. 

^  All  this  quaint  simplicity  had  gone,  leaving  only  far-off  memories  of  the  old 

days : — 

Littlo  was  stown  tlicii,  and  less  gaed  to  waste, 

Barely  a  inuUen  for  inico  or  for  rattens  ; 
The  thrifty  housewife  to  the  Fleshniarket  paced, 

Her  equippage  a'  just  a  guid  pair  o'  pattens. 

Folk  were  as  gude  then  and  friends  were  as  leal, 
Though  coaches  were  scant  with  their  cattle  a-cantrin  ; 

Right  air,  we  were  tell't  by  the  housemaid  or  cliiel, 
"  Sic,  an'  ye  please,  here's  your  lass  and  your  lantern." 

"Change  in  Edinburgh,"  Sir  Alex.  Boswell's  Poetical  Works. 


126     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

and  poor,  formed  by  proximity  in  the  same  turnpike  stair; 
the  quaint  old  dowager  ladies  of  rank  and  poverty,  who,  on 
"  small  genteel  incomes,"  and  with  one  maid-servant,  kept  up 
a  tiny  establishment  and  gave  slender  entertainments  in  a 
fourth  flat, — all  these  passed  away  for  ever. 

By  the  close  of  the  century  these  "  lands,"  in  multitudinous 
closes,  were  becoming  deserted  by  the  upper  classes.  Although 
some  clung  on  tenaciously  to  their  patrimonial  tenements,  the 
bulk  of  quality  and  fashion  had  gone  to  reside  on  the  other 
side  of  the  swampy  North  Loch,  quitting  for  ever  the  old 
haunts  where  so  long  a  teeming  friendly  population  of  gentle 
and  simple  had  dwelt,  leaving  for  ever  ancient  flats  associated 
with  ages  of  dirt  and  dignity,  of  smells  and  social  mirth. 
The  old  rooms  received  new  occupants — pawnbrokers  lived 
where  lords  of  session  had  dwelt;  washerwomen  cleaned 
clothes  in  chambers  where  fine  ladies  had  worn  them;  mechanics, 
with  their  squalling  brats,  occupied  apartments  whose  decorated 
mantelpieces  and  painted  ceilings  told  of  departed  greatness — 
rooms  where  in  bygone  days  the  gayest  of  the  town  had  met, 
when  they  were  scenes  of  all  that  had  been  brightest  and 
merriest  of  olden  life.^ 

With  the  New  Town  of  Edinburgh  began  a  new  social 
existence  in  Scotland. 

1  "  In  1763  people  of  quality  and  fashion  lived  in  houses  which  in  1783  were 
inhabited  by  tradesmen  or  by  people  in  humble  and  ordinary  life.  The  Lord 
Justice-Clerk  Tinwald's  house  was  possessed  by  a  French  teacher,  Lord  President 
Craigie's  house  by  a  rouping  wife  or  saleswoman  of  old  furniture,  and  Lord 
Drummore's  house  was  left  by  a  chairman  for  want  of  accommodation." — Creech's 
Fucfiti'oe  Pieces,  p.  64. 


CHAPTEE    IV 


TOWN    SOCIETY GLASGOW 


Previous  to  the  Union  of  1707  Glasgow  possessed  no  in- 
dustrial life  or  energy;  its  population  was  little  over  12,500, 
having  rapidly  diminished  from  the  number  of  14,600  which 
had  peopled  the  city  in  1660.^  When  the  seventeenth  century 
closed,  its  prosperity  was  so  decayed  that  many  of  the  better 
class  of  houses  were  unoccupied,  and  those  which  were  in- 
habited were  let  at  a  third  of  their  former  rents ;  the  trade 
was  mean,  and  the  commerce  was  insignificant,  for  the  citizens 
owned  no  more  than  fifteen  vessels,  whose  aggregate  tonnage 
was  1182  tons,  the  largest  ship  having  a  burden  of  only  160 
tons. 

The  shallow  channel  of  the  Clyde,  with  its  many  sand- 
banks, could  not  admit  any  vessel  farther  up  the  river  than 
fourteen  miles  from  the  Broomielaw — then,  as  its  name 
suggests,  the  flat  banks  covered  with  "  broom,"  as  Birkenhead 
was  with  "  birches," — and  up  and  down  the  stream  only  small 
boats  could  ply.^  Any  ship  engaged  in  foreign  trade  required, 
therefore,  to  load  and  unload  her  cargo  at  harbours  distant 
from  the  town,  whence  goods  were  conveyed  along  the  ill- 
made  tracks  on  little  pack-horses,  which  bore  on  their  feeble 
backs  with  difficulty  a  load  of  two  hundredweight  at  a  time. 

i  Benholm's  Hist,  of  Glasgow,  1804,  \>.  110. 

^  In  1775  the  Clyde  was  deepened,  so  that  vessels  drawing  6  feet  of  water 
could  be  brought  to  Glasgow,  and  in  1798  vessels  drawing  9^  feet. — Cleland's 
Else  and  Progress  of  Glasgow,  p.  113. 


128      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

From  Dumbarton,  many  miles  away,  or  from  Port  Glasgow 
(since  1705  by  name  and  for  convenience  intended  to  be  the 
port  of  the  city),  the  freights  were  borne  laboriously  along, 
while  such  bulky  materials  as  timber  from  Norway  were  trans- 
ported on  boats  on  the  river.  The  trade  engaged  in  was  in- 
significant alike  in  quantity  and  in  kind — dried  herring  and 
salmon,  stockings,  sheep  skins,  coarse  serges,  tarred  rope,  con- 
signed to  Norway,  France,  and  Holland.  The  industries  were 
rudimentary  and  unskilled.  On  the  Firth  were  great  numbers 
of  men  fishing  for  the  abundant  salmon  and  herring,  which, 
when  dried  or  salted,  were  sent  abroad  or  sold  to  the  people, 
being  a  principal  article  of  their  food,  and  the  repast  of 
labourers,  seamen,  and  reapers  in  the  harvest.^  In  the  little 
town  weavers  were  engaged,  partly  on  linen,  but  chiefly  on 
woollen  stuffs,  the  oldest  and  most  characteristic  product 
being  the  making  of  plaiding — a  coarse  fabric  of  which  the 
worthy  citizens  of  St.  Mungo  were  so  vastly  proud,  that  in 
1715  the  magistrates  resolved  to  send  "  a  swatch  of  plaiding 
to  the  Princess  of  Wales  as  the  manufacture  belonging  to  this 
place."  ^  For  Her  Eoyal  Highness's  instruction  they  thought- 
fully explain,  that  these  plaids  are  "  such  as  is  generally  used 
in  Scotland,  and  as  worn  by  the  women  as  covers  when  they 
goe  abroad,  and  by  some  men  as  morning  guns  [gowns],  and 
for  hangings  for  bed-chambers." 

These  were  but  the  beginnings  of  a  new  life.^  Ten  years 
later  linen  manufacture  began  to  be  a  staple  of  industry  in 
the  West  of  Scotland ;  the  sound  of  the  shuttle  was  heard 
in  street  after  street  from  two  thousand  looms  through  the 
open  doors  from  morning  till  night,  engaged  in  making  linen, 
lawn,  and  cambric.  1735  saw  the  first  tape  or  incle  factory 
in  the  kingdom  set  up  under  the  enterprising  Harvey,  who 
had  wormed  out  the  secret  of  its  production  in  Holland, 
and  brought  over  two  looms  and  a  Dutch  workman  to  initiate 

^  Spreull's  Accompt  Current,  etc.,  1705  ;  Denliolni's  Hist,  of  Glasgow,  p.  402. 
For  sustenance  of  the  seamen  seven  herrings  were  allowed  to  each  man. — 
Macgeorge's  Old  Glasgow,  p.  234.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  247. 

^  On  the  various  industries  of  Glasgow,  in  their  rise  and  progress,  local 
histories  are  full  of  many  but  necessarily  monotonous  facts.  Gibson,  Brown, 
Denholm,  Macgeorge,  and  others,  state  the  story  with  conscientious  detail  in 
books  whose  pages  it  is  needless  to  cite  particularly. 


TO  WN  SOCIETY— GLASGO  W  1 29 

his  countrymen  into  the  process.  There  were  the  signs  of 
activity  everywhere — the  making  of  glass,  shoes,  pottery,  ropes, 
and  carpets.  A  short  distance  from  the  Trongate,  then 
surrounded  by  orchards  and  fields,  there  was  a  factory  for 
making  candles,  and  as  the  goods  were  carried  to  customers 
through  the  "  rigs  "  of  the  field,  the  district  became  known  by 
the  name,  which  the  dingy  street  reared  on  its  ground  still 
bears,  of  the  "  Candlerigs."  So  busy  was  the  little  city  that 
it  is  said  in  1750  "  every  child  was  at  work,  and  not  a  beggar 
was  to  be  seen.''^ 

But  for  the  chief  cause  of  this  extraordinary  develop- 
ment we  must  go  back  to  the  Union  of  1707.^  Before  that 
event  there  was  no  scope  for  commercial  energy  or  enterprise 
for  Glasgow.  How  could  it  compete  in  foreign  trade  with 
towns  on  the  east  coast  ?  Their  own  vessels  required  to  sail 
with  baffling  winds  all  round  the  north  of  the  country  before 
making  for  the  ports  of  Holland  or  Norway,  while  vessels 
from  Leith  or  Dundee  sailed  quickly  and  directly  over.  At 
the  same  time  the  English  laws  had  prohibited  all  Scots  trade 
with  America  and  the  Indies,  to  which  their  ships  could  sail 
right  across  the  Atlantic.^  This  obstacle  was  removed  by 
that  Union,  which  was  received  with  a  howl  of  national 
indignation.  Quickly  taking  advantage  of  the  change,  a  few 
men  put  their  little  capital  together,  got  goods  for  barter, 
chartered  a  small  vessel  from  Whitehaven,  and  sent  her  forth 
beyond  the  seas.  The  captain  acted  as  supercargo,  set  out 
for  Virginia,  where  he  stayed  till  his  cargo  was  disposed  of, 
and  returned  with  rum  and  tobacco  and  some  money,  which 
(tradition  says)  he  handed   to  his  employers  in  a  stocking."* 

^  Gibson's  7/tA-<.  of  Glasgow,  1777. 

-  Tlic  humble  scale  on  which  business  was  conducted  in  these  old  days  is 
indicated  by  the  anxious  comment  of  Wodrow  from  his  manse  at  Eastwood, 
a  few  miles  away  from  the  city,  whose  bold  ventures  staj^ger  him  as  tempting 
Providence.  In  1709  ho  writes  :  "  In  the  beginning  of  this  month  [November] 
Borrowstounness  and  Glasgow  have  suffered  very  much  by  the  ileet  going  to 
Holland,  it  being  taken  by  the  French.  It  is  said  that  in  all  there  is  £80,000 
sterling  lost  there,  whereof  Glasgow  has  £10,000.  I  wish  trading  persons  may 
see  the  language  of  this  providence." — Analcda,  i.  218.  In  1727  there  were 
trade  losses  amounting  to  £27,000,  wliich  causes  Mr.  Wodrow  to  exclaim  :  "  It's 
a  wonder  to  me  how  they  pull  throo." — Ibiil.  iii.  452. 

•'  Tour  through  Great  Britain,  begun  by  Defoe,  175G,  vol.  iv. 

■•  New  Stat.  Acct.  of  Scotland,  vi.  231. 
VOL.  I  9 


130     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

The  method  in  which  the  early  transactions  of  these  trading 
ventures  were  conducted  was  a  model  of  simplicity  and  self- 
protecting  caution.  The  prudent  shopkeepers  bargained  with 
those  who  supplied  them  with  manufactures  for  sale,  that  they 
should  not  be  paid  till  the  vessels  returned  with  their  cargoes 
to  Port  Glasgow.  By  this  ingenious  arrangement,  with  which 
weavers  and  fish-curers  were  obliged  to  comply,  they  who 
furnished  the  goods  ran  most  of  the  risk,  while  the  astute 
traders  got  most  of  the  profits,  and  paced  the  Trongate  with 
easy  mind  till  the  ships  they  did  not  own,  and  the  cargoes  for 
which  others  had  paid,  returned  safely  home. 

These  vessels  were  usually  hired  from  "Whitehaven,  for  the 
citizens  had  no  vessels  of  their  own  fit  for  long  sea-voyages 
till  1718,  when  the  first  vessel  owned  by  a  Glasgow  merchant 
crossed  the  Atlantic.  Even  up  till  1735  the  good  citizens 
could  only  boast  of  fifteen  vessels  of  their  own,  engaged  in  the 
Virginian  trade.  But  activity  increased  year  by  year.  Ships 
set  forth  with  home  manufactures,  and  returned  laden  with 
rich  cargoes  of  colonial  products.  Glasgow  became  the  source 
from  which  agents  of  the  Farmers-General  bought  all  the 
tobacco  that  entered  France;^  and  in  1772  more  than  half 
of  all  the  tobacco  imported  into  the  kingdom  was  brought  to 
Glasgow,  making  these  Virginia  merchants  the  most  prosperous 
men  in  Scotland.^  Such  were  the  rising  fortunes  of  Glasgow : 
let  us  look  at  its  social  life,  characteristic  of  the  burghal  ways 
of  the  century. 

II 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  Glasgow,  with  its  popula- 
tion of  about  12,500  inhabitants,  formed  a  small  community 
with  houses  clustered  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  Market 
Cross.  "It  has,"  says  Captain  Burt,  who  saw  it  in  1726,  "a 
spacious  carrefour  where  stands  the  cross,  and  going  round  it 
you  have  by  turns  the  views  of  the  four  streets  that  in  regular 

^  Forbes'  History  of  a  Banking  House. 

2  In  1772  Glasgow  imported  no  less  than  49,000  out  of  the  entire  90,000 
hogsheads  which  were  imported  into  the  kingdom.  Smollett  states  in  Humphrey 
Clinker  (1771)  that  Mr.  John  Glassford  had  twenty-five  vessels  engaged  in;_the 
Virginia  traffic  with  trade  to  half  a  million. 


TOWN  SOCIETY— GLASGOW  131 

angles  proceed  from  thence.  The  houses  are  faced  with  ashlar 
stone ;  they  are  well  sashed,  all  of  one  model,  and  piazzas  rise 
round  them  on  either  side,  which  gives  a  good  air  to  the 
buildings.  There  are  some  handsome  streets ;  but  the  extreme 
parts  of  the  town  are  mean  and  disagreeable  to  the  eye." 
The  town  seemed  to  him  "  the  most  uniform  and  prettiest "  he 
had  ever  seen.  All  other  visitors  were  impressed  as  favour- 
ably as  this  English  engineer  officer  by  the  beauty  and  charm 
of  the  little  city,  so  pleasantly  situated  by  the  green  banks  of 
the  Clyde.^  The  first  historian  of  Glasgow,  in  1736,  gives  quite 
an  idyllic  picture  of  his  town  as  "  surrounded  with  cornfields, 
kitchen  and  flower  gardens  and  beautiful  orchards,  abounding 
with  fruits  of  all  sorts,  which,  by  reason  of  the  open  and  large 
streets,  send  forth  a  pleasant,  odoriferous  smell."  -  Beside  the 
substantial  houses  of  the  well-to-do  citizens,  with  quaint 
picturesque  Flemish  architecture  and  crow-stepped  gables, 
however,  stood  mean,  dirty,  and  broken-down  hovels  to  mar 
the  beauty  of  the  town ;  while  in  the  streets  stood  middens, 
against  which  magistrates  vainly  objected,^  and  in  the  gutters 
remained  garbage  seriously  to  spoil  the  "  odoriferous  smell " 
of  the  fruit  and  flower-scented  air. 

The  Trongate  was  the  centre  of  life  and  business. 
Colonnades  extended  along  the  basement  floors  of  the  houses 
on  both  sides  of  the  four  principal  streets  that  formed  a  cross, 
and  under  the  shadow  of  the  pillars  supporting  the  piazzas 
were  the  small  and  dingy  shops,  entered  by  half  doors,  over 
which  the  merchants  leaned  waiting  for  customers  or  chatting 
with  their  neighbours.  Inside,  the  wares  were  miscellaneous, 
though  the  choice  was  slender — shalloons  and  dried  fish,  yarn 
and  candles,  and  brocades.  The  highest  rent  of  these  rooms, 
where  the  goods  of  the  best  Glasgow  "  merchants  "  or  shop- 
keepers were  sold,  was,  in  1712,  only  £5,  while  humbler  ware- 
rooms  were  let  at  12s.  The  price  of  these  modest  mercantile 
houses  may  be  understood  by  the  fact  that  two  hundred  and 
twenty  shops  were  rented  at  a  total  sum  of  £623.'* 

^  Burt's  Letters,  i.   22  ;   Defoe's   'Toxir  tlirowjh  Great  Britain,  iv.   117  (8th 
edition)  ;  Morer's  Short  Account  of  Scot.  1702. 

-  M'Ure's  Hist,  of  Glasgow  (M'Vitie's  edition),  p.  122. 
•*  Macgeorge's  Old  Glasgow,  p.  266. 
*  Curiosities  of  Qlasgoic  Citizenship,  xi. 


132      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

The  dwelling-houses  of  the  wealthiest  class  of  citizens  were 
chiefly  in  flats,  entered  by  turnpike  stairs,  dark,  narrow,  and 
unsalubrious,  for  which  the  rent  was  merely  £100  Scots,  or 
£8:6:8  sterling.  In  SpreuU's  Land  in  the  Trongate  lived 
ten  families  on  the  "  common  stair,"  including  three  ladies 
of  title — one  being  Lady  Glencairn — in  their  respective 
"  landings " ;  and  their  ladyships  did  not  consider  they  paid 
too  little  for  their  dwellings  when  they  gave  the  high  rent  of 
£10  a  year. 

Shops  for  provisions  were  not  then  to  be  found,  and  ladies 
set  forth  in  the  morning,  wending  their  way  cautiously  in 
pattens  over  the  mire  and  past  the  dunghills,  to  the  booths 
and  stalls  in  the  road,  after  their  servants  had  come  back  from 
filling  their  stoups  and  jugs  at  the  public  draw-wells,  where 
they  had  waited  with  the  crowd  of  other  barefooted  maidens 
for  their  turn.^  Twice  a  week  the  small  supply  of  flesh  came 
for  sale  that  was  suf&cient  to  supply  their  wants,  because 
from  Martinmas  till  May  the  only  meat  used  was  salted.  And 
on  the  rare  arrival  of  fresh  meat  in  winter,  the  bellman  went 
along  the  streets  announcing  the  excitiuGf  fact." 

The  ways  of  the  town  were  simple,  for  trade,  until  nearly 
the  middle  of  the  century,  made  slow  progress,  and  even  those 
who  were  prosperous  retained  the  old  fashions  of  their 
fathers.  At  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  a  gun  was  fired,  which 
intimated  that  the  post -runner  (and  after  1717  the  more 
expeditious  post-horse)  had  arrived  with  letters  from  Edin- 
burgh, and  citizens  set  forth  to  the  little  shop  where  the 
merchant  who  acted  for  £12  a  year  as  postmaster  handed  out 
the  small  supply  of  correspondence.  Thereafter  they  returned 
to  breakfast,  and  after  a  repast  on  porridge,  herring,  and  ale, 
took  their  stand  at  the  shop  door,  or  their  seat  in  the  dingy 
little  warehouse,  till  at  half-past  eleven  the  music-bells  of  the 
Tron  played  their  pleasant  tunes,  which,  like  the  St.  Giles' 
bells  of  Edinburgh,  were  a  signal  for  merchants  and  tradesmen 
to  adjourn  to  their  favourite  taverns  to  drink  their  "  meridian  " 

^  "  There  is  plenty  of  water,"  says  M'Ure  in  1736,  "  tliere  being  several  water 
wells  in  several  closses  of  the  toun,  besides  sixteen  public  wells  which  serve  the 
city  night  and  day  as  need  requires." — History  of  Glasgow. 

-  Strang's  Ohihs,  p.  13  ;  Macgeorge's  Old  Glasgow,  p.  293. 


TOWN  SOCIETY— GLASGOW  133 

of  ale  or  brandy — an  operation  which,  the  liquor  being  served 
in  a  pewter  tankard,  was  popularly  styled  "  pewthering."  At 
mid-day,  or  one  o'clock,  having  turned  the  key  and  shut  up 
their  shops,  they  dined  on  the  inevitable  broth  and  salt  beef, 
or  the  boiled  fowls,  bought  by  the  lady  near  the  Cross  that 
morning  for  threepence  each.  Dinner  over,  with  its  beverage 
of  ale  or  "  twopenny,"  the  doors  of  shop  and  wareroom  were 
reopened  till  eight  o'clock,  when  the  citizens,  having  finished 
business  for  the  day,  in  companies  of  four  or  five,  resorted  to 
the  little  tavern  rooms,  where  they  drank  and  gossiped,  and 
discussed  the  prices  of  serges,  the  weft  and  warp  of  fine  lawn, 
the  arrival  of  a  vessel  at  Port  Glasgow  with  fir  deals  from 
Sweden,  or  the  chances  of  sale  of  tallow  with  Norway,  By 
nine  o'clock,  however,  they  usually  returned  home  to  supper, 
to  family  worship,  and  to  bed.^ 

Very  frugal  and  plain  were  the  modes  of  living  in  those 
early  days,  and  the  ways  of  private  folk  and  public  function- 
aries were  extremely  unpretentious.  When  affairs  commercially 
were  "  looking  up,"  a  careful  liberality  was  displayed,  and  the 
Town  Council  in  1720  were  even  induced  to  requite  the  Lord 
Provost's  services  in  a  rising  city  by  allowing  him  a  salary  of 
£20  sterling,  "because  the  chief  magistrate  whiles  in  that 
station  is  obligt  to  keep  a  post  suitable  thereto,  and  cannot 
but  be  at  considerable  charge  in  furnishing  his  house  with  wine 
for  the  entertainment  of  gentlemen  who  may  have  occasion  to 
wait  upon  him  at  his  house."  ^  It  was  in  the  same  spirit  of 
municipal  munificence  distinguishing  these  bailies  that  they 
occasionally  sent  a  gift  of  local  products  or  imports  to  legal 
and  political  friends  of  the  city.  Thus  they  now  and  then 
sent  by  the  carrier  a  barrel  of  herring  to  advocates  who  had 
served  in  pleas  at  the  Parliament  House,  or  the  handsome 
award,  in  the  beginning  of  the  century,  of  4  lbs.  of  tobacco 
to  the  "  town's  friend  in  Edinburgh  " — at  a  cost  to  the  city  of 
4s.  3d.  sterling.  On  the  same  economical  scale  as  civic  affairs 
was  the  private  life  of  gentlemen  conducted.^  They  enter- 
tained little,  and  seldom  gave  dinners,  except  to  English  riders 

^  Strung  s  Cluhs  of  Glasgow,  passim;  New  Stat.  Acd.  of  Scotla'iid  ;  IJannatyne's 
Reminiscences,  vi.  230. 

'^  Macgeorge's  Old  Glas<joxv,  p.  223.  ^  Rid.  p,  237. 


134     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

or  bagmen,  or  to  their  kith  and  kin  in  homely  gatherings  at 
supper  at  New  Year. 

While  the  men  had  their  meetings  with  friends  at  the 
taverns,  ladies  had  their  quieter  assemblies  at  home,  where, 
after  1725,  tea  became  the  fashionable  beverage.  At  the 
"  four  hours  "  visitors  dropped  in,  were  received  in  the  bedroom, 
and  partook  of  the  tea  out  of  the  precious  and  fragile  cups, 
the  treasured  china  of  the  hostess,  who  with  delicate  handling 
washed  them  as  the  door  closed  behind  the  last  departed  guest. 
Parties  could  not  be  large  in  those  flats,  consisting  of  four 
or  five  small  rooms,  with  their  little  windows  that  let  in 
meagre  light,  though,  being  ill-sashed — if  sashed  at  all — they 
let  in  ample  draughts  of  air.  The  family  lived  in  the  main 
bedroom.  There  they  had  their  meals ;  there  they  received 
their  visitors.  Only  when  special  company  was  expected  was 
the  one  unaired  and  seldom-used  public  room  prepared.^  This 
was  the  ordinary  style  of  living  even  of  very  prosperous 
merchants,  although  a  somewhat  more  luxurious  mode  was 
adopted  by  those  wealthier  gentlemen  who  were  making  large 
fortunes  in  the  Virginia  trade,  and  had  handsome  mansions 
with  the  "  odoriferous  "  gardens  and  orchards,  lauded  by  worthy 
M'Ure,  the  town  historian,  such  as  stood  on  the  spot  now 
covered  by  St.  Enoch's  Square. 

The  houses  being  so  incommodious,  professional  men  could 
not  conveniently  see  their  clients  and  patients  at  home,  and 
merchants  could  not  in  their  crowded  little  shops  or  ware- 
rooms  transact  business  with  their  customers.  It  was,  there- 
fore, to  the  coffee-houses  or  taverns  that  they  resorted,  where 
they  could  bargain  and  barter,  talk  and  consult.  There  patients 
met  the  chirurgeons  and  got  advice  as  to  the  potions,  vomitories, 
and  gargarisms  they  should  take  ;  there  clients  saw  the  lawyers, 
and  over  their  ale  or  wine  made  their  testament  or  drew  up  a 
Memorial  to  their  "  Lordships  "  in  Edinburgh  ;  and  there  mer- 
chants arranged  with  country  tradesmen  their  supply  of  serges. 
Every  transaction  was  carried  out  with  the  accompaniment  of 
ale  or  brandy,  or  a  chopin  of  claret.  Pious  and  well  ordered, 
as  befitted  such  a  religious  district,  the  citizens  would  sanctify 
their  drams  by  saying  a  grace  over  them,  and  a  minister,  if 
1  New  Stat.  Acct.  of  Scotland,  vi.  230. 


TO  WN  SOCIETY— GLASGO  W  135 

present,  would  be  respectfully  asked  to  "  ask  a  blessing "  or 
"  say  a  few  words,"  which  he  did  at  considerable  length  before 
they  partook  of  a  tin  of  ale  or  mutchkin  of  claret.  This  was 
the  proper  preliminary  to  selling  a  horse  or  a  supply  of 
Kilmarnock  bonnets.^ 


Ill 

Speaking  of  Glasgow  society  as  he  remembered  it  in  his 
student  days,  in  1746,  and  speaking  somewhat  superciliously, 
Dr.  Alexander  Carlyle  says  :  "  There  were  only  a  few  families 
of  ancient  citizens  pretending  to  be  gentlemen,  and  a  few  others 
who  were  recent  settlers  there  who  had  obtained  wealth  and  con- 
sideration in  trade.  The  rest  were  shopkeepers  and  mechanics 
and  successful  pedlars,  who  occupied  large  ware-rooms  full  of 
manufactures  of  all  sorts  to  furnish  a  cargo  for  Virginia.  Their 
manner  of  life  was  coarse  and  vulgar." "  They  certainly  were 
simple  and  provincial,  and  the  fashions  of  far-off  London  and 
their  echoes  from  aristocratic  Edinburgh  rarely  travelled  to  the 
banks  of  the  Clyde.  Unpretentiously  its  young  ladies  went  to 
schools  for  learning  the  art  of  spinning  Hax,  fine  yarn,  and 
making  cambric.  Like  explorers  in  a  strange  realm  of  science, 
they  attended  the  lessons  of  the  distinguished  teacher  who 
advertised  himself  in  1740  as  having  been  "  regularly  educated 
under  His  Majesty's  cook,"  and  able  to  teach  the  "  art  of  making 
pastry,  confectionary,  candying,  pickling,  and  of  making  sillabubs, 
gellies,  and  broath  of  all  sorts,  and  also  of  dressing  and  order- 
ing a  table."  Doubtless  it  was  because  the  magistrates  were 
longing  for  a  change  from  the  perpetual  and  depressing  sameness 
in  their  home  fare  that  they  allowed  this  culinary  artist  from 
Buckingham  Palace  £L0  yearly  "  during  pleasure."  The  results 
were  not  conspicuous  for  success. 

Literature  was  not  a  matter  of  widespread  interest  in  this 
trading  community,  although  under  the  eye  of  the  learned 
professors  of  the  University — that  venerable  building  in  the 
High  Street,  with  its  grim  grey-stoned  quadrangles.      Books 

'  Strang's  Glxths  of  Glasfjov\  p.  102. 
-  Carlyle's  Autobiograj>hy,  p.  74. 


136     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

were  few,  and  they  were  sold  in  little  shops,  dealing  chiefly  in 
chap-books,  sealing-wax,  stationery,  and  fishing-rods,  exposed 
at  the  window  beside  poor  college  classics  in  gray  pasteboard 
covers,  devout  works  such  as  the  Balm  of  Gilead,  Eutherford's 
Letters,  Boston's  Fourfold  State,  and  Gray's  Sermons — books 
which  Glasgow  publishers  were  always  reprinting,  for  the 
people  dearly  loved  to  read  them.  The  few  men  of  reading 
could  get  their  books  by  the  cadger  from  Edinburgh,  or  by 
boat  from  London  via  Bo'ness,  or  from  Eobert  Toulis  after 
he  set  up  selling  books  in  1741.  Art  was  far  from  the 
thoughts  and  taste  of  this  society,  engrossed  in  selling  tobacco', 
fingrams,  shoes  and  linen.  And  when  the  brothers  Foulis 
started  their  Academy  for  the  furthering  of  the  Fine  Arts, 
only  three  merchants  lent  them  money  for  a  fantastic  scheme 
which,  they  knew,  could  bring  no  profits  to  their  till.  Citizens 
travelled  as  little  in  those  days  as  they  read,  for  means  of 
journeying  were  few  and  expensive.  Not  till  1749  did  a 
stage-coach  begin  to  run  over  the  ill-kept  road  to  Edinburgh 
twice  a  week,  occupying  twelve  hours  on  the  way,  for  which 
a  charge  of  9s.  was  made ;  though  a  less  pretentious  caravan 
could  bear  them  slowly  along  on  springless  wheels  for  5  s. 
only. 

The  city  had  a  reputation  for  sanctity  to  keep  up.  The 
covenanting  spirit  had  ever  been  keenest  in  the  West  country ; 
its  sturdiest  upholders  had  been  the  westland  Whigs ;  and 
western  mobs  had  no  more  delightful  and  conscientious  pursuit 
than  to  raid  an  Episcopal  meeting-house  or  to  chivvy  its 
minister.  In  1 7 1 2  richly  it  enjoyed  hustling  "Amen"  Cockburn 
and  his  wife  from  their  home  because  the  curate  read  prayers 
at  funerals  in  a  black  gown,  till  they  fled  the  town  in  terror. 
With  highly  approved  promptitude  did  the  magistrates  in 
1728  silence  a  nonjuring  minister  who  "prays  not  for  the 
king,"  and  had  set  up  to  preach  in  a  private  house  "  closs 
opposit  to  the  colledge."  He  vanished  at  once  upon  a  threat 
of  six  months'  imprisonment,  and  the  town  was  purged  again 
of  Prelacy.^ 

Simultaneously  with  the  apparition  of  the  Episcopal  preacher 
was  the  appearance  of  Tony  Ashton  and  his  strollers — two 
^  Wodrow's  ^/w^ccte,  ii.  247,  iv.  9. 


TOWN  SOCIETY— GLASGOW  137 

iniquities  in  one  month,  which,  as  Wodrow  reflects,  is  "  pretty 
singular."  The  players  held  their  performances ;  but  it  was 
felt  a  godly  consolation  that  they  "did  not  make  so  much 
as  to  pay  their  musick."  Theatrical  entertainments  always 
aroused  popular  indignation  in  the  West.  The  weavers 
destroyed  the  wooden  booth  in  which  Love,  Digges,  and  Mrs. 
Ward  intended  to  appear  one  night  in  1752.  Twelve  years 
later  no  site  would  scrupulous  citizens  let  within  the  royal 
bounds  for  a  playhouse,  and  a  crowd  set  fire  to  the  temporary 
erection  in  which  Mrs.  Bellamy  was  to  act.  That  there  was, 
however,  a  worldly  as  well  as  godly  section  in  the  community 
is  proved  by  the  fact  that,  her  wardrobe  having  been  burnt, 
from  her  admirers  forty  gowns  were  sent  to  the  great  actress.^ 
Hand  in  hand  did  ministers,  elders,  and  magistrates  walk 
together  in  fraternal  zeal  for  piety.  Whatever  the  Kirk- 
Session  desired  in  the  way  of  discipline  the  Town  Council 
enforced  by  penalties.  Vigilance  unremitting  was  exercised 
on  the  outgoings  and  incomings  of  the  people.  To  secure 
proper  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  compurgators,  or  "  bum- 
bailies,"  patrolled  the  streets  and  wynds  on  Saturday  night  to 
see  that  by  ten  o'clock  all  folk  were  quietly  at  home ;  and  if 
incautious  sounds  betokening  untimely  revelry  issued  from 
behind  a  door,  or  a  stream  of  light  from  chinks  of  a  window- 
shutter  betrayed  a  jovial  company  within,  they  entered  and 
broke  up  the  party  which  dared  to  be  happy  so  near  the 
Lord's  own  day.  On  Sabbath,  as  in  other  towns,  the  seizers, 
or  elders,  in  their  turn  perambulated  the  streets  during  divine 
service,  and  visited  the  Green  in  the  evening,  haling  all 
"  vaguers  "  to  kirk  or  session.'-^  The  profound  stillness  of  the 
8abl)ath  was  preternatural,  except  when  the  multitudinous 
tramp  of  heavy  shoes  came  from  a  vast  voiceless  throng  of 
churchgoers.  In  these  streets  of  wliicli  the  patrols  "  made  a 
solitude  and  called  it  peace,"  at  all  other  hours  no  persons 
passed,  no  sound  was  heard,  no  dog  dared  bark.      In  the  mirk 

^  Denholm'.s  Hist,  of  Glasgoiv,  p.  342  ;  Jackson's  Hint,  of  Scottish  Stage,  jip. 
97,  102. 

*  This  tyrannical  practice  was  continued  till  1780,  when  a  city  magnate  was 
taken  into  custody  for  walking  on  the  Green,  whcreujion  lie  raised  and  gained 
an  action  for  damages  at  the  Court  of  Session.  The  ancient  institution  was 
thus  mercifully  removed. — New  Stat.  Acd.  of  Scot.  vi.  231. 


138      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Sabbath  nights  no  lamp  was  lit,  because  all  but  profane  persons 
were  engaged  in  solemn  exercises  at  home.  During  the  day 
the  window-shutters  were,  in  strict  households,  just  opened 
enough  to  let  inmates  see  to  walk  about  the  room,  or  to  read 
the  Bible  by  sitting  close  to  the  window-panes. 

There  were  "  praying  societies  "  also,  which  became  more 
numerous  and  intense  after  the  Cambuslang  "  Wark  "  of  1742. 
Companies  of  twenty  or  thirty  of  the  devout  met  together  ; 
they  bewailed  the  wickedness  and  profligacy  of  the  age,  and 
they  profusely  prayed  for  the  overcoming  of  Satan.^     Most  of 
the  city  ministers  were  of  the  fanatical  high-flying  party  in  the 
Church ;  certainly  they  did  not  favourably  impress  young  Wolfe, 
then  stationed  in  Glasgow  with  his  detachment  of  soldiers.      A 
well-disposed  man,  this  young  officer  frequented  the  kirk ;  but 
he  writes  in  1749  to  his  mother  describing  them  as  "excessive 
blockheads,  so  truly  and  obstinately  dull  that  they  shut  out 
knowledge  at  every  entrance."  "     It  was  such  a  community  that, 
even  so  late  as   1764,  Professor  Eeid,  fresh  from  Aberdeen 
University,  condemned  as  "  Boeotian  in   their  understanding, 
fanatical   in   their  religion,  and  clownish  in  their  dress  and 
manners."  ^     Science  might  have  suffered  severely  if  the  petty 
]iiety  of  the  day  had  always  caught  its  transgressors.      It  was 
lucky  or  providential  that  the  "  seizers  "  did  not  catch  James 
Watt,  when   one  eventful  Sunday  afternoon  in  the  spring  of 
1765   he  walked  on  the  forbidden  Green  thinking  over  his 
unborn  engine,  and  "  just  as  he  got  to  the  herd's  house  "  the 
"  idea   of  a  steam   condenser  flashed  upon  his  mind."      One 
hesitates  to  think  what  disastrous  effect  the  interruption  of 
a  "  bum-bailie  "  midit  have  had  on  the  invention  of  steam- 
engines,  and  on  the  industry  and  science  of  the  future.'* 

Whether  from  natural  sedateness  or  from  the  wholesome 

1  Diari)  of  George  Broum,  Merchant,  1743-1752,  private  circulation. 

2  Wright's  Life  of  General  Wolfe.  In  1753  Wolfe  writes  :  "The  inhabitants 
retain  still  all  the  religion  they  ever  had,  I  daresay  with  less  ostentation  and 
mockery  of  devotion,  for  which  they  are  justly  remarkable"  (p.  128). 

•'  Kcid's  Works,  edited  by  Hamilton,  p.  41. 

•*  Smiles'  Lives  of  Bon  Hon  and  Watt,  chap.  iv.  An  English  traveller  in  1770 
observes  that  "the  inhabitants  have  been  remarkable  for  their  strictness  in 
attending  to  the  public  and  private  worship  of  God,  so  that  going  past  their 
doors  of  an  evening  you  may  hear  so  many  singing  psalms  that  you  are  apt  to 
imagine  yourself  in  church." — Spencer's  Complete  English  Traveller,  p.  599. 


TOWN  SOCIETY— GLASGOW  139 

influences  of  piety,  the  people  were  a  well-ordered  folk,  and  crime 
was  almost  unknown.  Sobriety  was  then  the  characteristic 
of  the  race.  In  1764  Professor  Reid  could  still  picture  the 
morals  of  the  city  in  favourable  terms  :  "  Though  their  religion 
is  of  a  gloomy  and  enthusiastic  cast,  it  makes  them  tame  and 
sober.  I  have  not  heard  either  of  a  house  or  a  head  broken,  of 
a  pocket  picked  or  any  flagrant  crime,  since  I  came  here.  I 
have  not  heard  any  swearing  in  the  streets,  nor  even  seen  a 
man  drunk  (excepting,  inter  710s,  one  professor)  since  I  came."  ^ 
This  remarkable  quietude  and  propriety,  to  whatever  cause  it 
might  be  due,  could  not  be  attributed  to  the  vigilance  and 
efficiency  of  the  police  at  any  rate.  The  whole  town's  safety 
and  order  were  entrusted  to  the  unpaid  and  reluctant  burghers 
who  were  called  on  to  act  as  city  guard,  and  possessed  all 
the  irregularity  and  effeteness  of  amateur  performers.  Every 
citizen  who  was  between  the  years  of  eighteen  and  sixty  and 
paid  a  yearly  rent  amounting  to  £3  annually  (a  rule  in  those 
days  which  made  the  guard  rather  exclusive)  was  required  to  take 
his  turn  at  the  duty.  On  tuck  of  drum  the  gentleman  was  at 
his  post  at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  and  strolled  with  weary  tread 
and  yawning  gait  along  the  Trongate  and  High  Street,  and  up 
the  pitch-dark  lanes  of  winter  nights,  where  not  a  lamp  was 
burning,  till  three  or  four  o'clock  in  the  morning.  After  that 
hour,  in  the  obscure  and  unprotected  mornings,  the  city  was 
without  a  police,  and  the  tired  and  hungry  guardians  of  the 
peace  were  snug  and  snoring  in  their  box-beds."  The  better 
to  secure  order  in  the  burgh,  all  young  men  and  women  and 
servants  were  strictly  forbidden  to  be  in  the  streets  "under 
cloud  of  nights  "  in  companies,  and  all  strangers  staying  either 
in  private  or  in  public  houses  were  obliged  to  give  in  their 
names  by  ten  o'clock  at  night  to  the  captain  of  the  city 
guard. '^ 

In  this  way  were  affairs  conducted  with   perfect  simplicity 

1  Reid's  JForks,  edited  hy  Hamilton,  1863,  p.  40. 

^  In  1788  a  small  jwlice  force — at  an  annual  cost  of  £135 — was  associated 
with  the  citizens  in  public  duty. — Macgeorge's  (J/i/  lHasijoiv,  p.  292. 

^  On  "  Saturnsday,  7th  Dec.  1745,"  a  city  mercliant  of  gi-eat  piety  records  in 
Ills  Diary  :  "  Read  the  fourteentli  (;hai>ter  of  C'orintliians  ;  then  went  to  keep  the 
city  guard  at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  where  I  contiinied  till  near  four  in  the  morning, 
when  I  went  to  bed." — Diary  of  George  Broun,  p.  41. 


I40     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 

in  those  guileless  days.     Up  to  1750   the  city  may  be  said  to 
have  been  unlighted/  for  the  few  smoky  tallow-candle  lamps 
which  flickered   here  and  there  at  long  intervals  only  served 
to  intensify  the  gloom  rather  than  to  relieve  it,  and  cautious 
citizens  required  till  1780  to  light  themselves  in  the  darkness 
by  carrying    "  bowats "    or    lanthorns   in   their   hands,^   while 
ladies  in  their  pattens  were  accompanied,  like  the  timorous 
Bailie    Nicol    Jarvie,    along    the    Saltmarket    by   their  maid 
bearing  the  flickering  lamp.      There  were  no  hackney  coaches 
then,  and  only  a  few  sedan-chairs,  to  convey  old  ladies  to  the 
kirk  or  young  ladies  with  spacious  hoops  to  the  dance.      Un- 
paved,  uncausewayed,  the  streets  even  till  near  the  end  of  the 
century  were  rugged  and  filthy,  full  of  ruts  in  dry  weather 
and  of  mire  in  wet,  while  the  city,  growing  with  its  population 
in  wealth,  was  satisfied  to  leave  the  maintenance  and  cleansing 
of  "  streets,  causeways,  vennels,  and  lanes,  the  highways  and 
roads,  within  and  about  the  city,  and  territories  thereof,"  to 
the  labour  of  only  two  men.^ 


IV 

In  the  middle  of  the  century  there  appeared  distinct  signs 
of  social  improvement,  enterprise,  and  luxury.  The  city  had 
now  about  19,000  inhabitants.  Hitherto  the  shopkeeper 
supplied  miscellaneously  shoes,  lanterns,  stay-laces,  or  silks ; 
the  merchant  could  accommodate  customers  with  wedding 
rings  and  the  best  green  tea.  But  the  social  fashions  of  the 
world  were  beginning  to  invade  Glasgow,  and  the  inhabitants 
were  full  of  interest  when  a  shoemaker,  a  silversmith,  and 
a  haberdasher  opened  their  shops  in  the  Trongate  in  1750, 
and  ladies,  instead  of  waiting  for  the  carrier  from  Edinburgh 
to  bring  special  articles,  could  now  put  on  their  pattens  and 
go  across  to  the  new  shop.      There  were  now  mantua-makers, 


'  In  1780  the  magistrates  agreed  to  put  up  nine  lamps  on  the  south  side  of 
the  Trongate  on  condition  that  the  proprietors  laid  a  foot  pavement. — Macgregor's 
Hist,  of  Glasfjoiv,  p.  290. 

-  New  Stat.  Acct.  Scot.  vi.  232  ;  Macgeorge's  Old  Glasgoiv,'  p.  290  ;  Carlyle's 
Autohiography,  p.  75. 

^  In  1777  the  Council  enacted  that  "a  third  person  should  be  employed  along 
with  the  said  two  men." — Macgeorge's  Old  Glasgow,  p.  292. 


TOWN  SOCIETY— GLASGOW  141 

who  made  cloaks  for  the  living  and  "  dressed  dead  corpses  " ; 
who  sold  "  dead  flannels  "  for  the  deceased  and  burial  crapes 
for  the  survivors,  after  the  newest  Edinburgh  style.^ 

Soon  thereafter  the  walls  of  the  shops  broke  out  into  an 
eruption  of  signboards,  and  there  dangled  and  creaked  in  the 
air  from  poles,  red  lions  and  blue  swans,  cross  keys,  golden 
fleeces,  golden  breeches,  golden  gloves,  till  the  magistrates,  in 
course  of  time,  ordered  their  removal,  as  obscuring  the  light  of 
their  new  lamps  at  night.  But  amid  all  these  signs  of  progress 
the  city  was  unconscious  that  there  was  living  in  it  one  who 
was  to  promote  the  trade  and  commerce  of  the  West  more  than 
the  whole  band  of  merchants  and  tobacco-lords  put  together."-^ 
James  Watt  had  come  from  Greenock  in  1754  and  sought 
employment  in  the  little  shop  of  a  mechanic  who  called  him- 
self an  "  optician,"  because  he  mended  and  sold  spectacles, 
fiddles,  fishing-rods  and  tackle ;  and  after  a  brief  sojourn  in 
London  in  1756  he  returned  to  Glasgow,  where  the  Corporation 
of  Hammermen  refused  to  allow  him  to  set  up  business,  because 
he  was  neither  the  son  of  a  burgess  nor  the  apprentice  to  a 
citizen.  The  College  professors,  however,  sensible  of  his  rare 
capacity,  had  allowed  the  young  mechanic  to  have  his  workshop 
in  their  precincts,  and  there,  to  eke  out  a  living,  he  made  and 
repaired  any  article  his  customers  wanted.  Though  hardly 
knowing  one  tune  from  another,  he  mended  fiddles,  flutes,  and 
guitars,  as  well  as  spectacles  and  quadrants ;  while  his  shop 
was  frequented  by  students  who  lent  him  books,  and  by 
professors  like  liobert  Simson,  Adam  Smith,  Cullen,  and  Black, 
discussing  with  him  scientific  questions  as  he  wrought  at  his 
trade.  Near  him  in  the  quadrangle  was  the  book  and  printing- 
shop  of  the  admirable  brothers  Foulis,  who  sold  new  books  in 
their  shop  and  old  books  by  auction,  and  printed  the  classics 
and  works  of  poets  in  magnificent  type  and  with  rare  accuracy 
of  text,  to  delight  the  hearts  of  scholars  and  book-lovers.      This 

^  Strang's  Cliihs,  p.  71.  An  advertisement  in  1747  announces  :  "  James  Hodge 
continues  to  sell  burial  crapes  ready  made,  and  his  wife's  niece  wlio  lives 
witli  him  dresses  dead  corpses  at  as  cheap  a  rate  as  was  formerly  done  by 
her  aunt,  having  been  educated  by  her  and  perfected  at  Edinburgh,  from  whence 
she  lias  lately  arrived,  and  has  brought  with  her  all  the  newest  and  best  fashions." 
— Macgeorge's  Old  Glasgow,  p.  152. 

-  Smiles'  Lives  of  BouUon  and  Watt. 


142      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

was  the  haunt  of  all  who  valued  literature,  good   talk,  and 
pleasant  company.^ 

As  the  age  of  religious  tyranny  died  out,  the  genial 
qualities  of  the  people  crept  out  into  light.  In  the  city  there 
were  clubs  bearing  fantastic  titles  for  all  classes  of  men — 
men  of  letters,  doctors,  merchants.  Professor  Robert  Simson, 
the  great  mathematician.  Dr.  Moore,  the  literary  physician. 
Dr.  Cullen,  Adam  Smith,  were  allured  from  their  abodes  as 
readily  as  jovial  tradesmen  to  their  favourite  taverns,  where 
they  could  have  their  much-loved  banquets  on  hen-broth, 
composed  of  two  or  three  howtowdies  {Anglic^,  fowls),  black 
beans,  a  haggis,  a  crab-pie,  with  ample  punch.  Taverns  at 
night  resounded  with  lively  songs  and  with  the  easily  provoked 
mirth  of  citizens  whose  ideal  of  humour  is  that  quality  called 
"  jocosity  " — apparently  so  delightful  to  the  circle  in  which  it 
originates,  and  so  incomprehensible  to  those  who  are  outside. 
By  1753,  evidently,  customs  had  much  changed  from  the 
austere  past,  for  Wolfe  writes  home  :  "  We  have  plays,  concerts, 
and  balls,  public  and  private,  with  dinners  and  suppers  of 
the  most  execrable  food  on  earth,  and  wine  that  approaches 
to  poison.  The  men  drink  till  they  are  excessively  drunk." 
So  speaks  the  typical  English  tourist.  Dancing  assemblies 
attracted  the  whole  rank  and  fashion  from  the  West ;  daughters 
and  sons  of  ancient  county  families  came  by  coach  or  on  horse- 
back from  their  country  mansions  to  balls  that  began  at  five 
o'clock  and  lasted  till  eleven,  mingling  with  a  touch  of  con- 
descension with  the  new  families  of  prosperous  merchants,  who 
were  in  time  to  buy  their  ancestral  acres  from  their  impecunious 
fathers.  Social  customs  were  not  always  perfectly  refined  ;  for 
even  in  later  days,  when  assemblies  began  at  eight  o'clock,  the 
regulations  request  that  "  gentlemen  do  not  appear  in  their 
boots,"  and  that  they  "leave  their  sticks  at  the  bar." 

Fashion  at  its  best  and  fullest  and  fairest  was  seen  on 
the  Green  by  the  river  banks  on  fine  evenings,  where  moved  an 
animated  throng — ladies  in  hoops  and  silks  and  powder  and 
long  green  fans,  and  men  in  bright-coloured  coats  and  scarlet 
waistcoats  and  powdered  hair,  whose  clothes  did  not — though 
their  manners  might — suggest  the  stockings,  tar,  and  consign- 
^  Literary  Notices  of  Glasgow  (Maitland  Club). 


TOWN  SOCIETY— GLASGOW  143 

ments  of  red-herring  that  they  handled  in  the  shop  and  ware- 
house an  hour  before. 

By  1760  wealth  had  grown  apace  ;  the  cargoes  of  rum  and 
tobacco  from  Virginia  and  Maryland  and  the  West  Indies  were 
bringing  fortunes  to  traders.  These  men  formed  a  distinct 
caste  by  themselves.  Magnates  of  the  city,  arbiters  of 
fortune,  leaders  of  society,  those  aristocrats  of  the  Saltmarket, 
gave  themselves  airs  of  supreme  importance.  "  Pride  in  their 
port,"  they  regarded  their  fellow-townsmen  as  utterly  inferior, 
although  they  or  their  fathers  had  themselves  sold  dried 
herring  or  "  wicked  candles  "  in  a  shop  beneath  the  Trongate 
pillars.  On  the  "  plainstones  " — the  only  pavement  then  in 
Glasgow — in  the  middle  of  the  street  fronting  the  Trongate 
piazza,  those  Virginia  traders — known  as  tobacco -lords — 
strutted  in  business  hours,  clad  in  scarlet  cloaks,  cocked  hats, 
and  powdered  wigs,  bearing  with  portly  grace  gold-headed 
canes  in  their  hands.  On  "  the  top  of  the  causeway,"  which 
they  arrogated  to  themselves,  and  which  citizens  obsequiously 
conceded,  they  might  be  accosted  by  a  city  minister,  a  doctor, 
or  a  professor  from  the  University,  without  giving  rebuff;  but 
for  others  of  lower  trade  to  come  "  between  the  wind  and 
their  nobility"  was  a  liberty  not  to  be  permitted,  and  for 
common  feet  to  tread  these  stones  was  sacrilege.  If  a  shop- 
keeper wished  to  confer  with  a  Virginia  merchant,  he  did  not 
venture  to  come  up  to  speak  to  him,  but  stood  at  the  side  of 
the  street  or  in  the  gutter,  meekly  waiting  to  catch  the  great 
man's  eye  and  deferentially  indicate  his  desire  to  speak  to  his 
tobacco -lordship.  A  world  of  subtle  difference  lay  between 
a  tradesman  and  a  trader.^  They  certainly  were  prosperous, 
these  men ;  yet  many  of  them  lived  till  near  the  close  of  the 
century  in  flats,  and  there  at  a  rental  of  £6  to  £12  a  year. 
The  wealthier  men  occupied  fine  mansions,  near  the  busy  old 
streets,  inside  iron  railings  and  walls,  which  enclosed  gardens 
and  orchards,  wliich  have  long  been  covered  with  densely 
populated  thoroughfares  and  dull  warehouses.  Large  fortunes 
were  acquired  by  them,  good  marriages  were  made,  and  fine 
estates  were  bought.  Everything  seemed  in  their  favour  till 
the  American  war  in  1776   broke  out  and  ruined  the  great 

^  Glasgow  Past  and  Present. 


144      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Virginia  trade.  Disastrous  failures  followed,  princely  fortunes 
were  lost,  and  many  who  had  dominated  society  for  thirty  or 
forty  years  had  to  struggle  on  with  small  incomes  and  to  sink 
into  obscurity.'^  Other  trades  took  their  place.  Sugar  from 
the  West  Indies,  cotton  for  the  mills,  calico  printing,  muslin 
weaving,  and  cotton  spinning,  were  employing  thousands,  and 
manufactures  all  around  the  city  brought  new  wealth  to  new 
men,  and  fortunes  were  not  found  only  in  a  small  set,  but 
diffused  widely :  the  old  exclusiveness  of  society  disappeared, 
and  time-honoured  distinctions  and  purse-proud  prejudices 
passed  away  that  had  severed  foreign  merchants  and  home 
manufacturers  and  tradesmen  into  distinct  ranks.^ 


Other  social  changes  came  as  the  town  developed,  till  in 
1790  town  and  suburb  had  gained  a  population  of  sixty-two 
thousand ;  as  new  lines  of  handsome  streets  spread  over  the 
green  fields,  as  rich  families  moved  from  the  small  flats  of 
their  youth  to  "  self-contained "  houses,  and  closer  and  more 
frequent  communication  brought  them  in  contact  with  the 
outside  world.^  Shops  arose  to  suit  every  taste  and  supply 
every  want.  Sedan-chairs  began  to  give  place  to  hackney 
coaches  ;  no  longer  when  rain  fell  with  local  fluency  did  every- 
body rush  for  shelter  in  the  stair  "  closes " ;  but  from  the 
year  1783,  when  a  Glasgow  doctor  displayed  for  the  first 
time  a  yellow  umbrella  which  he  brought  from  Paris,  there 
were  seen  everywhere  the  bulky  rain-proof  implements  of 
yellow  and  green  glazed  linen.  There  was  more  air  of  luxury, 
though  the  dinners  were  still  of  one  course.  The  hour  for 
repast  had  advanced  to  two,  and  after  1770  in  some  high 
circles  to  three  o'clock.  It  was  not,  however,  till  1786  that 
a  lady  of  light  and  leading,  imitating  the  ways  of  Edinburgh, 

^  '  'After  the  American  war  was  over  the  tobacco  trade  never  regained  its  old 
dimensions  in  Scotland,  for  the  States  on  gaining  independence  largely  exported 
the  tobacco  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  direct  to  the  different  markets  of  Europe." 
— Bruce's  Report  on  the  Union,  Appendix,  p.  692. 

^  Denholm's  Hist.  p.  429  ;  Glasgow  Past  and  Present,  v.  2-4. 

*  The  rents  of  dwelling-houses  in  flats  about  1780  ranged  from  £6  to  £12  ; 
shops  and  booths  from  £10  to  £20. — Strang's  Clubs,  p.  91. 


TO  WN  SOCIETY— GLASGO  W  145 

gave  her  guests  dinner  in  two  courses — an  innovation  which 
was  regarded  as  gross  extravagance,  although  it  was  meekly 
explained  by  the  offender  that  she  only  divided  the  meal  into 
two  and  presented  no  more  dishes  in  two  courses  than  others 
put  down  in  one.^  Society  had  its  tea-parties,  where  the 
company  met  at  five  o'clock,  played  cards  till  nine,  when  they 
supped;  and  then,  as  the  ladies  withdrew  to  bed  or  to  the 
drawing-room,  the  host  and  his  friends  drank  their  punch,  or 
claret ;  and  bowl  followed  bowl  and  toast  followed  toast  till  the 
small  hours  of  morning.  About  this  period,  when  the  century 
was  far  advanced,  moral  and  religious  changes  for  the  worse 
had  come  into  vogue.  Sedate  men  deplored,  after  1770,  that 
men  swore  terribly  who  aimed  at  fashion — uttering  oaths 
that  had  come  from  London  via  Edinburgh,  though  spoken 
with  the  stronger  accent  of  the  West ;  there  also  came  a 
habit  of  drinking,  less  restrainedly  than  of  old,  amongst  all 
classes,  and  men  of  society  were  often  mighty  drinkers  under 
too  hospitable  roofs,  where  servants  were  in  waiting  to  loose 
the  cravats  of  recumbent  and  unconscious  guests.^  With  these 
symptoms  of  moral  disruption  there  was  ominous  laxity  in 
church  observance.  Of  old  every  pew  had  been  full,  and 
collections  for  the  poor  large ;  now  the  seats  were  often  sadly 
empty,  and  the  "  plate  "  at  the  kirk  door  was  slenderly  filled. 
It  is  true  that  these  relaxations  of  piety  and  prudence  were 
temporary  phases  of  society  in  Scotland,  and  that  when  the 
next  century  came,  the  city  resumed  much  of  its  former 
sobriety,  and  settled  down  to  quiet  ways  again.  But  it  was  no 
longer  the  small,  homely,  provincial  old  town — Glasgow  of 
1707,  with  its  population  of  12,500,  had  changed  beyond  all 
recognition  in  1800  into  a  city  of  nearly  80,000  people,  with 
its  streets,  containing  handsome  mansions,  covering  vast  spaces 
that  a  few  years  before  were  cornfields  and  orchards ;  and 
changing  the  fashionable  residences  of  the  olden  time  into  the 
dingy  warehouses  of  the  new  and  prosperous  age.^ 

^  New  Stat.  Acct.  Scot.  vi.  230  (Dugald  Bannatyne's  Recollections). 

2  New  Stat.  Acct.  vi.  232  ;  Strang's  Clubs  of  Glasgow. 

3  Population  of  Glasgow  in  1660,  14,678  ;  in  1708,  12,766  ;  in  1740,  17,043  ; 
1763,  28,300;  1780,  42,833;  1791,  66,575;  in  1801,  77,385.  Rental  in  1712, 
£7840;  in  1803,  £81,484.— Macgregor's  Hist,  of  Glasgow,  p.  531;  Denholm's 
Hist,  of  Glasgow,  p.  230. 

VOL.  I  10 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    LAND    AND    THE   PEOPLE 

1700-1750 


The  eighteenth  century  opened  in   Scotland   with  dark  and 
dismal  prospects.      From  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other 
the  poorer  classes  of  its  population  of  above  a  million  were 
in  misery,  hunger,  and  in  the  shadow  of  death.     The  seasons 
since  August  1696  had  been  seasons  of  blight  and  famine,  and 
the  memory  of  these  "  dark  years,"  these  "  ill,"  or  "  hungry 
years,"  as  they  were  significantly  called — or  "  King  William's 
years,"  as  some  Jacobites  styled  them — lingered  in  the  people's 
minds  for  generations.     During  these  disastrous  times  the  crops 
were  blighted  by  easterly  "  haars  "  or  mists,  by  sunless,  drench- 
ing summers,  by  storms,  and  by  early  bitter  frosts  and  deep 
snow  in  autumn.     For  seven  years   this  calamitous  weather 
continued — the  corn  rarely  ripening,  and  the  green,  withered 
grain  being  shorn  in  December  amidst  pouring  rain  or  pelting 
snow-storms.     Even  in  the  months  of  January  and  February, 
in   some   districts   many   of   the    starving    people   were    still 
trying   to   reap    the   remains   of  their   ruined   crops   of  oats, 
blighted  by  the  frosts,  and  perished  from  weakness,  cold,  and 
hunger.     The  sheep  and  oxen  died  in  thousands,  the  prices  of 
everything  among  a  peasantry  that  had  nothing  went  up  to 
famine  pitch,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  population  in  rural 
districts  was  destroyed  by  disease  and  want.     During  these 
"  hungry  years,"  as  starvation  stared  the  people  in  the  face, 
the  instincts  of  self-preservation  overpowered  all  other  feelings. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  147 

and  even  natural  affection  became  extinct  in  crowds  of  men 
and  women  forced  to  prowl  and  fight  for  their  food  like  beasts. 
People  in  the  North  sold  their  children  to  slavery  in  the 
plantations  for  victuals ;  men  struggled  with  their  sisters  for 
a  morsel  of  bread ;  many  were  so  weak  and  dispirited  that 
they  had  neither  heart  nor  strength  to  bury  their  dead.  A 
man  was  seen  carrying  the  corpse  of  his  father  on  his  back 
half  way  to  the  churchyard,  and  throwing  it  down  at  a 
farmer's  door,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  can  carry  it  no  farther.  For 
God's  sake  bury  the  corpse,  or  put  it,  if  you  like,  on  the  dyke 
of  your  kailyard  to  keep  out  the  sheep."  ^  On  the  roads  were 
to  be  seen  dead  bodies  with  a  morsel  of  raw  flesh  in  their 
mouths,  and  dying  mothers  lying  with  starved  infants  which 
had  sucked  dry  breasts ;  while  numbers,  dreading  lest  their 
bodies  should  be  exposed  to  the  birds,  crawled,  when  they  felt 
the  approach  of  death,  to  the  kirkyard,  that  they  might  have 
some  better  chance  of  being  buried  when  death  overtook  them. 
In  these  very  churchyards,  which,  owing  to  their  too  abundant 
replenishing,  were  the  only  fertile  spots  in  the  land,  old  and 
young  struggled  together  for  the  nettles,  docks,  and  grass  in 
spring ;  while  they  gathered  greedily  the  loathed  snails  in 
summer  and  stored  them  for  the  winter's  use.^  Even  in  the 
streets  of  towns  starving  men  fell  down  and  died.^  "  Through 
the  long  continuance  of  these  manifold  judgments,"  says  the 
pious,  credulous,  ungrammatical,  but  quite  veracious  historian, 
Patrick  Walker,*  "  deaths  and  burials  were  so  common  that 
the  living  wearied  of  the  burying  of  the  dead.  I  have  seen 
corpses  drawn  on  sleds,  many  neither  having  coffins  nor  wind- 
ing-sheets. I  was  one  of  four  who  carried  the  corpse  of  a 
young  woman  a  mile  of  way,  and  when  we  came  to  the  grave 
an  honest  man  came  and  said,  '  You  must  go  and  help  me  to 
bury  my  son ;  he  is  lien  dead  these  two  days ;  otherwise  I 
will  be  obliged  to  bury  him  in  my  own  yard.'  We  went,  and 
there  were  eight  of  us  had  two  miles  to  carry  the  corpse  of 

^  Htat.  Ac.ct.  Scotland,  vi.  18,  MorKiuliidder,  Kilmuir-Easter,  Kilsyth.  The 
people  in  their  eagerness  eat  the  corn  grains  raw. — Fletcher's  Second  Discourse; 
Stewart's  Sketches  of  Highlands,  i. 

^  SfM.  Acct.,  West  Lintoji,  i.  145. 

^  Kennedy's  Annals  of  Aberdeen,  i.  272. 

*  Biograph.  Presbyteriana,  ii.  24. 


148      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

this  young  man,  many  neighbours  looking  on,  but  none  to 
help.  I  was  credibly  informed  that  in  the  north  two  sisters 
on  a  Monday's  morning  were  found  carrying  the  corpse  of 
their  brother  with  bearing  ropes,  none  offering  to  help.  I 
have  seen  some  walking  about  till  the  sun -setting,  and  to- 
morrow about  6  o'clock  in  the  summer's  morning  found  dead, 
their  head  lying  on  their  hands,  and  mice  and  rats  having 
eaten  a  great  part  of  their  hands  and  arms."  These  grimly 
vivid  memories  gain  ample  confirmation  from  records  of 
the  time  and  traditions  of  the  people  that  survived  for 
generations.^ 

In  the  earlier  part  of  the  century,  when  the  poor  were  not 
interred  in  coffins,  they  were  only  carried  to  the  grave  in  the 
parish  coffin ;  and  in  those  "  dark  years "  the  bottom  of  the 
public  "  kist "  was  on  hinges  to  allow  of  the  bodies  being 
dropped  more  expeditiously  into  the  shallow  graves.^  Eecords 
of  Kirk-Sessions  shed  their  grim  light  upon  those  sad  days, 
and  such  an  entry  as  this  from  Cullen  Eecords  makes  the 
past  vivid  : — "  1699,  8th  May  :  George  Stevenson,  offischer,  for 
making  poor  folk's  graves,  14s.  6d.  [Scots,  or  Is.  2^d.  sterling]. 
19th  July:  Given  to  the  bedall  for  burying  severall  poor 
objects  who  died  of  the  famine  and  brought  dead  to  the 
churchyard,  15s.  7th  August :  Given  to  the  officer  for  burying 
some  poor  objects  dyed  through  scarcity,  6s."  ^     Often  there 

^  ' '  1699. — A  complaint  given  by  the  elders  against  the  generalitie  of  the  people 
that  they  are  become  so  inhuman  and  unchristian  as  would  not  so  much  as  help 
to  the  churchyard  with  the  dead  bodies  of  poor  persons  who  are  daylie  dying 
before  them,  being  invited  thereto  ;  which  scandal  and  unchristianitie  the 
minister  did  sharply  reprehend  from  the  pulpit,  holding  out  the  danger  of 
persistence  (which  God  in  His  mercy  prevent),  and  warning  them  that  those  who 
refused  to  attend  a  buriall  would  not  only  be  lyable  to  Church  censure,  but 
punishment  through  civill  magistrates  "  (Session  Records  of  Drumoak). — Hender- 
son's Upper  Deeside,  p.  102.  In  1699  pulpit  intimations  from  Commissioners  of 
Supply  to  all  persons  to  bury  the  "  corps  of  the  poor  timously  under  failzie  of  20s. 
to  those  persons  adjacent  to  where  they  dye." — Cramond's  Church  of  Deskford. 

^  In  ill  years  many  buried  only  in  winding-sheets,  for  which  the  Session  gives 
Is.  6d.  Scots. — Cramond's  P?-es62/.  of  Fordycc,  p.  30. 

^  Carruthers'  Highland  Note-Book :  "A  maiden  lady  in  Garmouth,  Morayshire, 
whose  name  is  still  gratefully  embalmed  in  traditional  recollections  of  the 
peasantry,  provided  shrouds  for  such  as  wandered  to  her  door  to  die  ;  and  so 
anxious  were  the  poor  to  avail  themselves  of  this  last  privilege,  that  they  journeyed 
far  and  near  that  they  might  be  secure  of  decent  interment "  (p.  165). — Cramond's 
Hist,  of  Cxdlen,  p.  138. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  149 

was  no  time  and  no  people  to  carry  the  corpses,  which  were 
buried  together  in  great  holes.  Of  those  who  survived  the 
horrors  of  starvation,  many  "  poor  objects  "  died  of  the  diseases 
which  hunger  had  engendered. 

The  scenes  of  continuous  misery  roused  the  ever  alert 
superstitious  feelings  of  the  people,  who,  of  course,  discerned 
in  the  misty  springs,  the  sunless  summers,  the  disastrous 
autumns,  and  pitiless  winters,  with  their  prolonged  intense 
frosts  and  deep  snows,  tokens  of  divine  wrath  on  a  back- 
sliding generation  ;  ^  and  with  vigilant  piety  they  found  special 
evidence  of  God's  judgment  in  the  miseries  which  overtook 
those  families  in  low-lying  fertile  districts  who  had  raised  the 
price  of  provisions,  and  were  therefore  regarded  as  carrion 
crows  who  had  fattened  on  the  poor.  Imaginative  memories 
could  recall  the  prophetic  utterances  of  covenanting  leaders, 
which  were  invested  with  those  circumstantial  details  with 
which  people  always  adorn  inspired  words  remembered  after 
the  events.  Had  not  godly  Donald  Cargill,  as  he  stood  upon 
the  green  braes  of  Upper  Bankside,  in  Clydesdale,  in  May, 
1661,^  not  only  foretold  his  own  fate,  but  also  prophesied  to 
his  awe-struck  congregation  :  "  You  shall  see  cleanness  of  teeth 
and  many  a  pale  blue  face  which  shall  put  thousands  to  their 
graves  in  Scotland  with  unheard  of  natures  of  fluxes  and  fevers 
and  otherwise,  and  there  shall  be  great  distress  in  the  land  and 
wrath  upon  this  people "  ?  Did  not  the  sainted  Master 
Eichard  Peden^  foretell  like  troubles  when  he  proclaimed 
that  "  so  long  as  the  lads  are  on  the  hills  and  in  glens 
and  caves " — that  is,  so  long  as  the  persecution  lasted — 
"  you  will  have  bannocks  o'er  night ;  but  if  ever  they  are 
beneath  the  beild  of  the  brae  you  will  have  clean  teeth  and 
many  a  black  pale  face  in  Scotland  "  ?  None  dared  to  doubt 
the  inspiration  and  authenticity  of  such  portentous  prophecies 
as  these. 

^  Bad  seasons  were  invariably  regarded  as  God's  judgments.  "  Drumoak, 
1689,  March  24. — In  respect  of  the  coldness  and  prodigious  frostiness  and  un- 
kyndliness  of  the  season  of  the  year  the  minister  preached  from  Micah  vi.  9. 
1709,  June  5. — Fast  intimated  for  the  unseasonable  coldness  of  the  weather  and 
the  great  loss  of  flocks  and  catell,  and  many  spiritual  plagues  in  all  ranks." — 
Henderson's  Upper  Decside,  p.  99. 

2  Walker's,  Biog.  Prcshy.  ii.  24.  '  Wodrow's  Analecta. 


ISO     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

At  the  height  of  the  scarcity  the  Privy  Council  allowed 
foreign  grain  to  enter  free  into  the  ports,  while  exportation 
of  grain  was  prohibited  under  heavy  penalty — which  was 
surely  a  superfluous  order.  Officers  searched  out  all  stored 
supplies  and  exposed  them  at  fixed  prices.  Commissioners 
of  Supply  ordained  the  maximum  charges  for  all  grain  in 
1699,  fixing  £17  Scots  (28s.  sterling)  a  boll  for  wheat, 
and  16  s.  6d.  Scots  for  each  half  stone  of  oatmeal.^  Every 
owner  of  grain  was  forced,  under  pain  of  forfeiture  of  his  whole 
stock,  to  thresh  all  the  grain  in  his  girnels — not  to  sell  even  a 
peck  as  it  was  conveyed  along  the  roads.  Yet  with  hungry 
eyes  the  folk  saw  the  food  exposed  in  the  market  at  prices 
they  could  not  pay.  "  I  have  seen,"  says  Patrick  Walker,^ 
"  when  meal  was  sold  in  markets  women  clapping  their  hands 
and  tearing  the  clothes  off  their  heads,  crying,  '  How  shall  we 
go  home  and  see  our  children  die  of  hunger  ? ' " 

Fierce  denunciations  were  uttered  by  the  clergy,  and 
severe  punishment  was  dealt  by  the  magistrates  on  all  fore- 
stallers,^  whose  conduct  was  regarded  with  utter  horror  by  an 
age  possessed  of  very  erroneous  notions  of  political  economy, 
but  possessed  of  very  accurate  opinions  of  human  nature. 
Edicts  were  read  from  pulpits  and  proclaimed  at  market- 
crosses  stating  the  maximum  sums  at  which  grain  was  to  be 
sold,  on  pain  of  prosecution  as  "  occurrers  "  or  usurers.  Such 
men  were  looked  on  with  detestation  by  the  people,  and  stories 
were  told  long  after  of  farmers  who  had  kept  their  meal  rotting 
till  it  rose  to  famine  price,  and  had  sent  to  prison  famishing 
children  for  taking  kail  out  of  their  yards,  and  were  them- 
selves by  divine  judgment  reduced  to  destitution,  and  forced 
to  beg  for  meat  at  the  doors  of  those  they  had  left  to  starve. 
To  mitigate  the  distress,  the  Church  appointed  days  of  fast  and 
humiliation  "  because  of  Sabbath  breaking,  drunkenness,  and 
the  general  and  particular  iniquities  which  had  brought  this 
divine  wrath  on  the  land,"  and  with  much  more  practical 
purpose  they  recommended  "  cheerful  and  liberal "  collections 
for  the  indigent  in  every  parish.      But,  unfortunately,  those 

^  In  Cromarty  oats,  which  in  good  years  cost  5s.,  rose  to  54s. — Sir  J.  Sinclair's 
Agric.  of  Northern  Counties,  p.  8. 

^  Biog.  Presby.  ii.  27.  ^  Annals  of  Hawick,  p.  107. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  151 

who  were  told  to  give  "  cheerfully  and  liberally "  were  them- 
selves "  indigent "  ;  the  incomes  of  the  lairds  depended  on  the 
grain,  the  loss  of  which  had  impoverished  themselves  as  well 
as  the  people. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  period  of  distress,  in  1698, 
that  Fletcher  of  Salton  described  the  woeful  state  of  the  land  : 
two  hundred  thousand  vagrants  "begging  from  door  to  door, 
half  of  these  belonging  to  the  wild,  brutalised,  savage  race  of 
nomads,  the  other  half  families  whom  poverty  and  famine  had 
driven  to  want,  while  thousands  of  our  people  are  at  this  day 
dying  for  want  of  food."  So  disastrous  were  those  "  ill  years  " 
to  the  rural  population,^  that  it  is  related  of  parishes  in  Mid- 
Lothian  that  300  out  of  9  0  0  persons  died ;  of  parishes  in  the 
North  that  out  of  sixteen  families  on  one  farm  no  fewer  than 
thirteen  perished ;  of  an  estate  which  gave  work  to  119 
persons  that  only  three  families  (including  the  proprietor's) 
survived ;  of  districts  once  well  populated  that  "  not  a  smoke 
remained " ;  and  villages  disappeared  into  ruins."  Many 
parishes  were  reduced  to  a  half  or  even  a  third  of  their  former 
inhabitants.  The  consequences  of  these  "  dark  years "  were 
far-reaching  and  long  lasting. 

The  land  had  not  recovered  from  its  troubles  when  the 
terrible  famine  of  1709  came  to  bring  ruin  on  farmers  and 
starvation  to  the  people — the  crops  and  cattle  destroyed  by 
continuous  disastrous  weather.  To  counteract  the  cupidity 
of  forestallers,  all  owners  of  grain  were  ordered  to  bring  it 
without  reserve  to  the  market  on  a  certain  day,  on  which 
the  Edinburgh  magistrates  commanded  it  to  be  sold  in 
quantities  not  exceeding  a  firlot  at   12s.  Scots  a  peck,  and 

^  Sir  William  Menzies,  who  farmed  the  Excise  of  Scotland  at  this  period,  had 
fallen  into  large  arrears  (£60,000)  to  the  Government.  He  was  prosecuted  for 
payment  by  the  Privy  Covmcil.  He  exonerated  himself  by  pleading  that  famine 
arising  from  natural  causes  or  the  hand  of  God  superseded  all  contracts,  and  in 
support  of  his  plea  undertook  to  prove  that  from  1697  to  1705  the  crops  were  in- 
adefjuate  to  the  support  of  the  people  ;  that  several  thousands  of  the  poor  had 
actually  perished  of  starvation  ;  that  as  many  more  had  emigrated,  and  that 
multitudes  were  compelled  to  have  recourse  to  unnatural  food,  such  as  wild 
spinage,  snails,  etc. — Somerville's  Own  Life,  i>.  305. 

*  Walker's  Biog.  Prcshytcr.  ;  Stat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Duthill,  iv.  316,  Kilmuir- 
Easter,  vi.  190.  "  In  parish  of  Kininvie  only  three  smoking  cottages  were  left." 
— Carruther's  Highland  Note-Book,  p.  164. 


152     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Town  Councils  in  other  towns  tried  to  meet  the  necessities  of 
the  people  by  fixing  the  prices  within  their  jurisdiction.^  The 
result  of  these  dearths  was  that  great  tracts  of  country 
formerly  under  cultivation  were  soon  covered  with  heather,  as 
if  they  had  never  been  under  the  plough,  not  to  be  reclaimed  for 
eighty  years  after.  As  the  tenants  had  been  driven  to  destitu- 
tion and  landlords  to  debt,  there  were  no  means  of  replenishing 
deserted  farms  or  money  to  rent  them,  although  landlords 
in  their  despair  offered  a  team  of  oxen  or  milk  cows  to  induce 
men  to  take  the  ground.  In  Aberdeenshire  many  who  quitted 
their  crofts  entered  into  the  stocking  factories,  crowds  quittad 
the  country ;  many  left  Ayrshire  and  Galloway  for  Ireland ; 
while  beggars  swarmed  in  every  town  and  village." 


II 

The  country  presented  in  those  days  little  that  was 
picturesque  to  the  eye  of  the  English  traveller  as  he  rode 
precariously  by  the  roads  that  were  but  ill-made  tracks  on 
which  his  horse  could  barely  keep  its  footing,  or  the  traveller 
keep  his  seat,  with  his  swinging,  lurching,  leathern  saddle-bags. 
It  was  treeless  and  bare ;  the  land  was  marshy  and  full  of 
bogs ;  instead  of  meadows  with  flocks  feeding  were  wild  moors 
stretching  far  and  wide  on  the  rising  ground,  and  here  and 
there  a  patch  of  soil  rescued  from  the  waste,  on  which  lumbered 
teams  of  eight  or  ten  oxen  tethered  to  an  uncouth  plough. 
But  what  struck  him  most  was  the  sight  of  huge  yokes  of 
oxen  dragging  the  plough  far  up  the  steep  hillsides  in  almost 
inaccessible  places ;  and  on  his  asking  why  ?  he  learnt  that 
the  farmer  was  obliged  to  till  the  dry,  steep  braes  because 
the  ground  below  was  hopelessly  swampy.^  In  later  times, 
ignorant  of  this  simple  reason,  persons  who  observed  on  high 

^  "  1709.— Wheat  had  advanced  to  £12  :  10s.  Scots  (£1:0: 10)  per  boll,  and 
the  bakers  were  authorised  in  Glasgow  to  reduce  the  weight  of  bread  of  the  12 
penny  loaf  to  8  oz.  1  dwt." — Macgregor's  Hist,  of  Glasgow,  p.  291. 

^  Robertson's  General  View  of  Agriculture,  1794,  p.  50;  Coltness  Collection; 
Fullarton's  Agric,  Ayrshire,  p.  8,  etc. 

^  Morer,  travelling  in  1689,  says  :  "  It  is  almost  incredible  how  much  of  the 
mountains  they  plough,  while  the  declensions — I  had  almost  said  precipices — 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  153 

hillsides  and  mountain  declivities,  even  on  the  flanks  of 
Schiehallion,  marks  of  ancient  furrows,  sentimentally  fancied 
that  these  were  signs  of  fine  cultivation  by  a  once  prosperous 
people,  who  had  been  driven  from  their  quiet  valleys.  These 
supposed  proofs  of  prosperity  were,  however,  really  tokens 
of  poverty.  The  imagined  signs  of  an  energetic  husbandry 
were  evidence  of  wretched  want  of  cultivation ;  telling  of 
an  undrained  soil,  of  deep,  wide  morasses,  filled  with  rushes 
and  inhabited  by  lapwings,  which  had  forced  the  poor 
husbandmen  in  their  despair  to  this  high  farming  in  the  only 
dry  spaces  they  could  find,  which  ill-requited  seed-time  and 
labour.^  Equal  marks  of  poverty  met  the  traveller's  eye  in 
the  natives  clad  in  blue  rags,  their  skin  browned  with  dirt, 
their  gait  listless ;  in  the  horses — dwarfish,  lean,  and  hungry  ; 
the  cattle,  emaciated  and  stunted  ;  the  miserable  hovels  of  turf 
and  stone ;  the  poor  patches  of  tilled  land,  abounding  in 
thistles  and  nettles  in  the  ridges.  Nor  was  the  ugliness  of 
the  social  aspects  redeemed  in  the  traveller's  eyes  by  grandeur 
of  scenery.  On  the  contrary,  the  rugged,  desolate  mountains, 
the  gloomy  glens,  filled  him  only  with  disgust :  the  taste  for 
wildness  of  nature  was  not  yet  born — nor  was  it  born  till  late 
in  the  century. 

In  such  a  country,  whenever  seasons  were  bad  and  crops 
were  blighted  the  peasantry  were  always  reduced  to  extremity. 
Years  of  dearth  came  often,  and  as  in  1709,  and  1740,  and 
1760,  the  condition  of  the  people  was  woeful.  If  we  ask  why 
this  was,  and  why  such  a  disastrous  state  of  the  people 
occurred  in  Scotland,  while  England  was  almost  entirely  free 
from  it,  we  find  the  explanation — not  in  the  unpropitious 
northern  climate,  in  its  excess  of  rain,  and  mist,  and  cold — 
but  in  the  barbarous  mode  of  its  agriculture.  When  we 
consider  the  style  of  farming,  the  utter  ignorance  of  or 
prejudice   against   every  rational   method    of   cultivation,  we 

are  such  that  to  my  mind  it  puts  'em  even  to  greater  (lidiculty  to  carry  on  their 
work  than  they  need  be  at  in  draining  the  valleys." — Short  Account;  Stewart's 
Sketches,  i.  xli, 

^  Logan^s  Scottish  Gael,  vol.  ii.  :  "One  reason  urged  against  winter  ploughing 
was,  that  so  much  of  the  ground  tilled  being  in  declivities,  the  winter  rain  would 
wash  the  soil  down  into  the  morasses  lying  below." — Walker's  Hebrides  and 
Highlands,  i.  180. 


154     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

begin  to  understand  how  and  why  farmers  were  unable  to 
bear  up  against  bad  seasons,  and  even  in  good  ones  had  barely 
.sufficient  food  for  the  support  of  the  population;  and  how 
Fletcher  of  Salton  could  say  that  such  unproductive  soils 
were  rackrented  at  from  2s.  6d.  to  Is.  an  acre. 

The  land  attached  to  each  farm  was  divided  into  "  infield  " 
and  "outfield";  that  nearest  the  house  being  the  croft  or 
"  infield,"  to  which  all  the  care  was  devoted.  Although  manure 
from  towns  was  so  little  valued  that  it  was  flung  into  the 
nearest  river,  whatever  manure  was  used  was  put  upon  this 
infield,  to  improve  which  the  farmer  would  even  unthatdi 
his  peat-covered  home ;  making  the  soil  so  rank  that  it  was 
luxuriant  only  in  weeds.  (Lime  was  hardly  known  as  an  aid  to 
the  soil  before  1730.)  Here  was  a  constant  succession  of  two 
crops,  one  year  oats,  next  year  barley ;  or  in  some  parts,  as  in 
Galloway,  the  ground  grew,  with  the  exception  of  a  ridge  of  flax, 
only  here  or  barley  for  four  or  six  years  without  intermission — 
every  third  ridge  receiving  each  year  all  the  nourishment.^ 

Six  times  larger  than  the  "infield"  was  the  "outfield," 
— wretched,  ill-kept,  untended  ground, — each  portion  of  which 
was  put  perpetually  into  oats,  or,  more  usually,  for  three 
years  in  succession ;  and  thereafter  it  lay  for  another  three  or 
four  years,  or  even  six  years  ^  fallow,  acquiring  a  rich  "  natural 
grass  "  of  weeds,  moss,  thistles,  on  which  the  horses,  sheep,  and 
black  cattle  fed.  Ground  was  cultivated  till  it  produced  only 
two  seeds  for  every  one  sown;  the  third  year  being  called 
the  "  wersh  crop,"  as  it  was  miserable  alike  in  quantity  and 
in  quality.^  In  consequence  of  the  different  treatment  and 
condition  of  the  two  parts  of  a  holding  the  values  differed 
enormously.  The  infield  might  be  let  at  3s.  an  acre,  while 
the  outfield  was  rented  at  only  Is.  6d.,  or  even  at  Is.  an  acre.^ 
Still,  however,  in  spite  of  all  disastrous  experience  of  centuries, 

^  Agnew's  Hereditary  Sheriffs  of  Galloway,  p.  449  ;  Hist,  of  Galloway,  ii.  6. 

2  Stat.  Acct.,  Capiith,  ix.  455. 

^  Select  Transactions  of  Society  of  Improvers  of  Agric.,  edited  by  ]\raxwel], 
Edin.  1740,  p.  214  ;  Ure's  Agric.  of  Dumbartonshire,  p.  45.  "Land  was  cultivated 
if  it  produced  2  seeds,  4  seeds  was  reckoned  a  noble  return."— Murray's  Lit.  Hist. 
of  Galloway,  p.  168.  In  some  districts  only  two  seeds  produced, for  one  sown  up 
to  end  of  century.— ^Ya<.  Acct.  Scot.,  Balquhidder,  vi.  93. 

*  In  Forfarsliire  in  1750  the  infield  let  from  4s.  to  10s.,  while  the  outfield  let 
at  only  Is.  6d.  an  acre. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  155 

people  clung  to  their  ancient  system,  and  their  faith  was 
embalmed  in  those  popular  wise  saws  which  condense  so  much 
popular  stupidity : — 

"  If  land  be  three  years  out  and  three  years  in, 
T'will  keep  in  good  heart  till  the  deil  grow  blin'." 

The  grain  most  sown  was  the  poorest  and  least  prolific 
kind,  which  was  abandoned  almost  everywhere  but  in  Scotland. 
It  was  the  gray  oats,  which  at  its  best  only  gave  increase  of 
three  seeds  for  one ;  and  here,  which,  although  the  least 
nutritious  of  all  barley,  was  grown  because  it  was  believed  to 
be  the  only  sort  that  would  flourish  in  the  soil.^ 

There  were  no  enclosures,  neither  dyke  nor  hedge  between 
fields,  or  even  between  farms ;  so  that  when  harvest  began,  or 
the  cereals  were  young,  the  cattle  either  required  to  be  tethered, 
or  the  whole  cattle  of  the  various  tenants  were  tended  by  herds 
(with  the  number  of  the  different  flocks  notched  on  the  clubs 
they  wielded),  who  took  them  out  every  morning  over  the 
same  route,  where  they  picked  up  whatever  whins  or  weeds 
they  could  find,  and  after  being  chased  out  of  every  unenclosed 
tempting  field  of  corn,  were  brought  back  at  night  half  famished 
and  wholly  exhausted."  When  the  harvest  was  over  the 
cattle  wandered  over  all  the  place,  till  the  land  became  a  dirty, 
dreary  common ;  the  whole  ground  being  saturated  with  the 
water  which  stood  in  the  holes  made  with  their  hoofs.  The 
horses  and  oxen,  being  fed  in  winter  on  straw  or  boiled  chaff, 
were  so  weak  and  emaciated  that  when  yoked  to  the  plough  in 
spring  they  helplessly  fell  into  bogs  and  furrows ;  even  although, 
to  fit  them  more  thoroughly  for  their  work,  they  had  been  first 
copiously  bled  by  a  "  skilful  hand."  ^  Cattle  at  the  time  of 
their  return  to  the  pasture,  after  the  long  confinement  and 
starving  of  winter,  were  mere  skeletons,  and  required  to  be 
lifted  on  their  legs  when  put  into  the  grass,  where  they  could 
barely  totter.  This  period  and  this  annual  operation,  when 
all  neighbours  were  summoned  to  carry  and  support  the  poor 
beasts,  were  known  as  the  "  Lifting." 

1  6',  A.  S.,  Kilmarnock,  ii.  689. 
^  Pratt's  Buchan,  pp.  17,  75. 

3  Agric.  of  Forfarshire,  by  G.   Dempster,  1794,  p.  2 ;  Agric.  of  Forfar,  by 
Rogers,  1793,  p.  4  ;  Parish  of  Carlulc,  p.  239. 


156     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

The  methods  of  tillage  were  supremely  clumsy  and  primi- 
tive. The  ploughs  were  enormous,  unwieldy  constructions 
which,  being  all  made  of  wood,  except  the  coulter  and  share, 
could  be  made  in  a  forenoon  for  a  shilling.  Each  plough  was 
drawn  by  four  or  six  meagre  oxen  and  two  horses,  like  shelties  ; 
or  even  by  twelve  oxen — two,  or  three,  or  four  abreast.^ 
As  they  dragged  it  along  a  whole  band  of  men  attended  to 
keep  them  going.  One  man  who  held  the  plough  required  to 
be  strong  enough  to  bear  the  shock  of  collision  with  "  sit-fast " 
stones ;  another  led  the  team,  walking  backwards  in  order  to 
stop  the  cattle  when  the  plough  banged  against  a  frequent 
boulder ;  a  third  went  in  front  with  a  triangular  spade  to 
"  mend  the  land  "  and  fill  up  the  hollows ;  and  yet  a  fourth,  as 
"  gadman,"  was  armed  with  a  long  pole  with  sharp  point  to 
goad  the  lagging  beasts,  and  was  required  to  exercise  his 
skill  of  loud,  clear,  tuneful  whistling  to  stimulate  them  to 
their  work."'^  With  all  this  huge  cortege,  a  plough  scratched 
half  an  acre  a  day,  and  scratched  it  very  poorly.  The 
harrows,  made  entirely  of  wood, — "  more  fit,"  as  Lord  Kames 
said,  "  to  raise  laughter  than  to  raise  soil,"  ^ — had  been  in  some 
districts  dragged  by  the  tails  of  the  horses,  until  the  barbarous 
practice  was  condemned  by  the  Privy  Council.  These  wooden 
harrows,  made  at  the  cost  of  7d.,  were  in  high  esteem,  from  its 
being  thought  impossible  for  iron  teeth  to  produce  a  good 
crop.  The  harness  *  consisted  of  collars  and  saddles  made  of 
straw,  and  of  ropes  made  either  of  hair  cut  from  horses'  tails 
or  of  rushes  from  which  the  pith  had  been  stripped. 

Perhaps  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  progress  in  agriculture 
was  the  almost  universal  system  of  "  run-rig."  The  fields  were 
divided  into  separate  "  rigs  "  or  ridges,  which  were  cultivated 
by  different  tenants.^      One  small  field  might  be  divided  into 

^  Donaldson's  Acjric.  of  Morayshire,  1793,  p.  76. 

^  A.  Dickson's  Treatise  on  Agric.  1765,  i.  p.  244.  Hence  arose  the  north- 
east country  proverb,  "  Muckle  whistlin'  and  little  red  land,"  signifying  much 
effort  and  little  result  {Gregor's  Folk-Lore,  p.  180)  ;  equivalent  to  the  saying, 
"  Mickle  din  and  little  woo."  The  phrase  was  applied  to  a  popular  preacher  with 
more  sound  than  substance. — Macfarlane's  Life  of  Dr.  G.  Lawson,  p.  22. 

^  Gentleman  Farmer,  p.  48,  6th  edit. 

"  Anderson's  Survey  of  Agric,  p.  25;  History  of  Galloway,  ii.  chap,  v.; 
Stat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Gigha. 

°  Fletcher's  Second  Discourse  ;  Pennant's  Tour,  ii.  201.     In  ignorance  of  the 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  157 

an  occupancy  of  from  four  to  eight  persons,  and  a  farm  with  a 
combined  rent  of  £50  might  have  eighteen  tenants,  amongst 
whom  the  land  was  redivided  by  lot  each  year  or  put  up  for 
auction.  The  tenants  had  their  cottages  clustered  together,  so 
that  in  some  places  a  township  was  like  a  little  village.  The 
quarrels  and  the  misunderstandings  between  these  men  were 
violent  and  incessant.-^  As  no  operation  could  begin  without 
mutual  help  with  horses,  and  oxen,  and  men,  and  common 
arrangement  as  to  crops,  they  required  all  to  be  agreed  as  to 
the  day  and  hour  of  beginning  labour,  the  times  and  mode  of 
ploughing,  sowing,  reaping.  But  as  each  had  his  own  obstinate 
opinion  on  each  of  these  matters,  the  bickering  might  cause 
the  lapse  of  weeks  before  all  consented  to  work  together,  and, 
if  possible,  to  spite  each  other.  So  jealous  were  they  of  their 
neighbours,  that  each  one  made  his  rig  as  high  as  possible,  so 
that  none  of  the  soil  should  be  carried  to  his  neighbour's 
ground ;  and  in  consequence  that  which  accumulated  on  the 
top  was  never  stirred  deeper  than  the  shallow  ploughshare 
could  scrape ;  while  the  seed  lost  on  the  sides  in  harvest  was 
hardly  worth  gathering.  The  ridges — each  alternate  ridge 
having  a  different  tenant — were  usually  20  feet  wide,  and 
often  as  wide  as  40  feet,  crooked  like  a  prolonged  S,  and  very 
high.  Only  the  crown  of  the  rig,  which  was  full  of  stones, 
was  ploughed,  and  half  the  width  of  the  ridges  and  the  ground 
between  them  were  taken  up  with  huge  "  baulks  "  or  open 
spaces  filled  with  briars,  nettles,  stones,  and  water.^  How 
could  any  waste  land  be  reclaimed  under  such  a  system  ? 
If  one  man  dared  to  cultivate  a  neglected  bit  of  ground, 
the  others  denounced  him  for  infringing  on  their  right  of 
grazing  on  the  outfields.     How  could  he  begin  the  growing 

origin  of  this  custom  (then  decaying  in  England)  in  village  communities  (which 
were  transformed  into  villan  holdings  in  the  Middle  Ages)  it  was  fancied  that  it 
arose  for  the  purpose  of  mutual  defence  from  the  enemy — an  end  secured  by  com- 
mon interest  in  the  soil. — Interest  of  Scotland  Considered,  1733  ;  St.  Acct.  Scot., 
Wick,  p.  26  ;  ,S'i!.  Acct.,  Ayton,  i.  31. 

1  Robertson's  Survey  of  S.  District  of  Perthshire,  p.  18. 

-  YMWQrtoTi's  Survey  of  Ayrshire,  p.  41  ;  Ure's  Dunibartonshire,  p.  15  ;  Survey 
of  Ross-shire,  p.  209  ;  Stat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Kilwinning,  xi.  151.  "Even  up  to  1756 
in  Clydesdale,  near  Glasgow,  the  baulks  between  the  rigs  were  mostly  covered 
with  heath,  broom,  whins,  growing  among  stones." — Brown's  Hist,  of  Glasgow 
p.  170. 


1S8      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

of  any  new  crop  ?  The  others,  viewing  every  innovation  with 
the  contempt  which  comes  from  that  feeling  of  superiority 
which  ignorance  and  stupidity  produce,  would  refuse  to  join  him. 
Having  no  lease,  he  had  no  motive  to  improve  land  which  next 
year  might  be  in  the  hands  of  another  man  to  whom  it  fell 
by  lot.  He  could  not  store  hay  for  the  cattle,  because  the 
instant  the  harvest  was  over  the  whole  land  became  open 
pasturage  for  the  whole  township.^  Yet,  in  spite  of  its 
absurdity,  the  people  were  so  devoted  to  their  "  run-rig,"  or 
"  stuck-run-way  "  plan,  that  if  twenty  fields  were  allotted  to 
twenty  farmers,  they  would  rather  have  a  twentieth  share  in 
twenty  fields  than  have  one  field  each  to  himself. 

The  customs  regarding  times  and  seasons  for  conducting 
farming  operations  were  of  the  most  rigid  order  :  traditions  and 
usages  had  acquired  a  sanctity  and  force  which  few  dared 
to  gainsay.  It  was  not  permissible  to  begin  ploughing  until 
spring,  as  the  undrained  soil  was  too  wet  to  allow  of  it  earlier. 
No  farmer  would  yoke  a  plough  till  Candlemas,  and  many 
would  not  begin  till  the  10th  of  March — some  not  till  the 
20  th  of  March — having  a  profound  reverence  for  days  and 
seasons  in  agriculture,  though  an  equally  profound  horror  of 
them  in  religion.^  The  consequence  of  this  rule  was  that  the 
gray  oats  were  not  usually  sown  till  April,  even  up  to  the 
close  of  the  century,  and  it  was  often  May  before  the  "  bigg  " 
or  four  rowed  barley  was  put  into  the  ground,  and  in  many 
places  the  year  had  advanced  as  far  as  the  end  of  May  or 
beginning  of  June  before  the  bere  was  sown. 

In  those  days,  when  the  soil  and  minds  of  the  farmers 
were  equally  uncultivated,  everything  was  ruled  by  ancient 
ways.^  Greatly  they  believed  in  the  traditions  of  the  elders, 
which  pronounced  that  "  it  was  not  too  late  to  sow  when  the 
leaves  of  ash  cover  the  pyot's  (magpie's)  nest " — which  was 
the  month  of  June.*  They  protested  that  if  it  were  sown 
earlier  it  would  be  smothered  by  the  marigold,  wild  mustard, 

^  Pennant's  Tour,  ii.  201  ;  Robertson's  Southern  Districts  of  Perthshire,  p. 
118,  p.  308. 

^  Walker's  Hebrides  and  Highlands,  i.  200  ;  Ure's  Rutlierglen,  p.  180  ;  Mar- 
shall's Agric.  of  Central  Highlands,  p.  46  ;  Fullerton's  Agric.  Ayrshire. 

^  Stat.  Acct.  Szotland,  xiv.  10,  Chirnside. 

■*  Marshall's  Central  Highlands,  p.  40. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  159 

and  thistles,  and  everyone  believed  that  the  seed  sown  in 
February  would  be  certainly  killed  by  the  frost.  Accordingly, 
none  was  put  into  the  earth  till  the  first  of  April,^  and  the 
result  was  that  the  grain — and  the  worst  grain  was  carefully 
reserved  for  seed — did  not  mature  till  the  autumn  gales  set  in. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  frequently  the  ground  produced  only 
about  two  bolls  on  an  acre,  which  did  not  repay  the  time  and 
labour. 


Ill 

With  a  system  so  atrocious,  with  land  uncleaned,  unlimed, 
unmanured,  undrained,  it  frequently  happened  that  the  yield 
could  not  feed  the  inhabitants  of  the  district,  and  men  renting 
from  forty  to  a  hundred  acres  needed  to  buy  meal  for  their 
families.  In  consequence  of  the  bulk  of  their  crops  consisting 
of  only  gray  oats  when  meal  failed  them — which  always 
happened  when  bad  seasons  came — the  people  were  in 
destitution  and  despair.  In  such  straits  the  town-folk  were 
reduced  to  the  sparest  rations,  and  country  people  bled  the  half- 
starved  cattle  to  mix  the  blood  with  a  little  meal — a  practice 
which  in  many  quarters  began  in  dire  necessity  and  was  con- 
tinued as  a  matter  of  taste.^ 

The  people  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  seasons ;  for  if  their 
oats  were  destroyed  or  barley  blighted — their  only  two  products 
— they  had  nothing  else  to  live  upon — for  pease,  though  grown, 
only  supplied  a  little  meal :  a  week  of  rain,  a  night  of  storm,  a 
premature  frost  or  snow,  might  reduce  them  to  the  point  of 
starvation.  This  helplessness  fostered  in  them  a  sense  of  awe 
and  dependence  on  Providence,  which  gave  a  peculiar  power  to 

'  Russell's  Haigs  of  Bemersyde,  p.  484  ;  Ure's  Dumhartoiishire,  vii.  180. 

-  Fullerton's  Agric.  of  Ayrshire,  p.  8.  "During  these  times  wlien  potatoes 
were  not  generally  raised  in  the  country,  there  was  for  the  most  p.irt  a  great 
scarcity  of  food,  bordering  on  famine  ;  for  the  stewartry  of  Kirkcudbright  and 
county  of  Dumfries  there  was  not  as  much  victual  as  was  necessary  for  supplying 
the  inhabitants  ;  and  the  chief  part  of  what  was  required  for  tlie  pur^iose  was 
brought  from  the  sandbanks  of  Esk  on  tumbling  carts  on  Wednesdays,  and 
when  the  waters  rose  by  reason  of  spates,  and  there  being  no  bridges,  so  the  carts 
could  not  come  with  the  meal.  I  have  seen  the  tradesmen's  wives  in  the  streets 
of  Dumfries  crying  because  there  was  none  to  get." — Letter  of  Maxwell  of 
Munches,  referring  to  1725-1735,  in  Murray's  Lit.  Hist.  Galloway,  p.  338. 


i6o     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

ministers,  whose  voice  in  prayer  could  stay  the  fury  of  the 
elements  and  dispel  the  withering  "  haar  "  and  mist  over  the 
marshy  soil,  and  make  the  sun  break  forth.  It  was  quite  a 
common  experience,  when  the  snow  was  drifting  over  the  wild 
moors,  and  the  people  were  in  dismay  with  only  a  few  days' 
food  for  their  cattle,  that  the  minister  wrestling  in  prayer 
seemed  to  avert  the  impending  ruin.  In  such  a  period,  Mr. 
Thomas  Boston,  in  the  bleak  parish  of  Ettrick,  records :  "  The 
Lord  was  with  us  in  praying  and  preaching  from  Joel  i.  18, 
'  Now  do  the  beasts  groan,  etc'  ^  The  Lord  graciously  heard 
our  prayers.  The  morrow  was  no  ill  day ;  but  on  the  Friday 
the  thaw  came  by  a  west  wind."  Unfortunately,  piety  did  not 
uproot  the  inveterate  sluggishness  of  farmer  and  labourer :  it 
seemed  rather  to  dignify  dirt  and  to  consecrate  laziness.  The 
people  believed  that  disease  was  due  to  the  hand  of  God,  instead 
of  being  due  to  the  want  of  using  their  own  hands.^  They 
held  that  every  season  of  dearth  was  owing  to  Providence 
rather  than  to  their  own  improvidence.  They  protested  that 
weeds  were  a  consequence  of  Adam's  fall,  and  that  to  remove 
docks,  wild  mustard,  and  nettles  was  to  undo  the  divine 
curse.  They  threshed  the  corn  with  the  flail,  and  winnowed 
it  by  throwing  it  up  in  the  air,  rather  than  use  the  out- 
landish fanners  which  Meikle  had  set  up  in  1710;  because 
"  it  was  making  Devil's  wind,"  contravened  Scripture,  which 
said,  "  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,"  and  took  the 
"  power  out  o'  the  hands  o'  the  Almichty."  The  ancient  mills 
for  grinding  oats,  it  was  believed,  had  been  piously  placed  by 
their  forefathers  where  they  could  be  worked  according  to  God's 
order,  without  artificially  embanking  the  water  or  turning  it 
from  its  natural  course,  which  would  be  sinful :  Providence 
ordained  the  site,  man  had  only  to  discover  it.  Pious  feeling 
gave  rise  to  one  conviction  finer  than  those  prejudices — the 
belief  that  it  was  wrong  to  gather  and  glean  too  exactly  all 
the  ears  of  corn  in  fields,  because  birds  should  be  fed  as  well 
as  man,  and  some  of  the  bounty  of  Providence  should  be  left 
for  the  fowls  of  the  air.^ 

^  Memoirs. 

-  Ure's  Hist,  of  Rutherglen  ;  Ure's  East  Kilbride,  1793,  p.  198. 

^  Gregov's  Folk-Lore  of  North-JSast  of  Scot.,  p.  183. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  i6l 

In  other  ways  religious  feelings  and  Christian  ordinances 

ministered  to  idleness,  fostered  prejudice,  and  depressed  and 

hampered   agriculture.      Wlien   "  sacramental   seasons "   came 

round  and  set  in  with  their  usual  severity,  the  workpeople 

would  sometimes  attend  four  or  six  communions  in  succession  in 

surrounding  parishes.     This  indeed  was  a  right  they  claimed 

by  compact  as  well  as  a  privilege.     They  trudged  over  moor 

and  mountain,  over  bogs  and  streams,  to  any  parish  where 

communion  was   to   be  celebrated   under  a  popular  minister 

beloved  on  the  "  Occasions,"  as  the  communions  were  called,  till 

a  place  with  a  normal  population  of  400  was  seething  with 

a   crowd   of    2000.      They   stayed    in   the    parish   in   barns, 

or   byres,   or   lay   in   open   air  from  Thursday   till   Tuesday, 

attending   the  "preachings."     Farmers   were   obliged   to   kill 

sheep  for  the  ministers ;  to  supply  oatmeal  to  feed  the  hungry 

communicants ;  to  get  straw  to  furnish  beds  for  the  strangers, 

and   food   for   their   horses — no   light   task  when   there  was 

scarcely  grain  enough  for  their  own  families  or  straw  enough 

for    their    own    cattle.^      Often    the    Kirk -Sessions    met    in 

prayer  and  perplexity  as  to  how  to  supply  this  multitude,  on 

whom  they  had  pity,  when   they  had  so  few  "  vivers "  for 

themselves.     A  popular  gospel  preacher  was  a  most  expensive 

parochial  luxury,  for  he  attracted  crowds  who  consumed  their 

victuals.     These  protracted  holy  days  and  holy  fairs  encouraged 

men  and  women  to  desert  their  fields  and  their  farm  duties  at 

the  most  critical  periods  of  the  year ;  leaving  their  crops  to  run 

1  Mr.  Thomas  Boston  in  1731  has  777  communicants  at  his  sacrament  in 
Ettrick :  ' '  There  are  nine  score  strangers  at  Midgehop  ;  four  score  of  them 
W.  Blaik  entertained,  having  before  baked  for  them  half  a  boll  of  meal  for 
bread,  bought  4s.  3d.  worth  of  bread,  and  killed  3  lambs  and  made  30  beds." 
Another  summer :  "The  people  being  stinted  for  victual  to  entertain  their  families 
I  could  not  find  it  in  my  heart  to  burden  them  through  strangers  resorting  to 
them  in  such  summers.  When  it  was  considered  in  the  Session  before  the  sum- 
mer came  in,  it  was  declared  there  would  not  be  hay  or  straw  to  make  beds  for 
the  strangers,  which  touched  me  to  the  heart  on  their  account." — Memoirs. 
On  another  occasion  he  relates  that  before  the  communion  "  Satan  stirred  up  the 
spirit  of  some  neighbours  against  me  and  my  works,  apprehending  that  tliere 
would  be  a  great  gathering,  whereby  the  corn  would  sufiFer."  At  Creech,  in 
Sutherland,  1714,  the  people  attended  in  such  numbers,  even  going  50  miles  to 
communion,  that  the  introduction  of  strangers  became  so  burdensome  to  the 
parishioners  that  the  ministers  were  induced  to  have  the  communion  only  every 
two  years. — Scott's  Fasti  Eccles.,  part  v.  p.  334. 

VOL.  I  11 


1 62      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

risk  from  all  ravages  of  ill  weather.  Such  devout  exercises 
certainly  did  not  conduce  to  agricultural  progress  and  intelli- 
gence :  they  made  the  people  much  poorer,  if  more  pious.^ 


IV 

The  rental  of  the  land  was  paid  chiefly  in  kind,  and  was 
exacted  in  ingeniously  vexatious  ways.  Partly  as  a  cause  of 
this  practice,  and  partly  as  a  consequence  of  it,  money  was 
extremely  scarce  in  Scotland  amongst  every  class.^  An  estate 
of  £300  yearly  rental  would  often  have  only  £40  paid  in 
money,  and  that  in  silver,  for  no  gold  was  to  be  seen ;  the  rest 
was  paid  in  so  many  bolls  of  meal,  so  many  sheep,  hens,  and 
eggs,  butter,  and  cheese,  besides  so  many  days'  ploughing  and 
reaping.  In  Caithness  it  was  partly  paid  in  "cazzies,"  or 
baskets  for  carrying  food,  ropes  for  drawing  ploughs,  and 
heather  tethers  for  thatching.  The  result  of  this  method 
of  payment  was  that  money  was  too  rare  with  lairds,  and 
provisions  were  too  copious.  This  led  to  prodigality,  waste, 
and  debt.  Landlords  required  huge  granaries  to  store  their 
rents  "in  kind,"  and  ministers  had  large  girnals  to  contain 
their  stipends ;  ^  and  it  is  evident  that  the  massive  hospitahty 
rife  amongst  the  landed  gentry  of  olden  times  was   greatly 

1  "  I  have  seen,"  says  a  shrewd  observer,  "above  3000  people  on  one  of  those 
occasions,  but  supposing  that  one  with  another  there  are  only  1500,  and  that 
each  of  them  might  earn  6d.  a  day,  every  sacrament  by  its  three  idle  days  will 
cost  the  country  about  £112  sterling,  not  including  the  days  that  they,  living  at 
a  great  distance,  must  lose  in  coming  and  going,  and  the  losses  the  farmer  must 
sustain  when  occasion  happens  in  the  hay  harvest  or  seed  time,  the  men  of  busi- 
ness when  they  chance  to  fall  on  mercat  days,  or  the  tradesmen  when  any  particular 
piece  of  work  requires  dispatch.  Now,  supposing  the  sacrament  only  adminis- 
tered twice  a  year  in  all  our  churches,  those  occasions,  as  they  are  at  present 
managed,  will  cost  Scotland  about  £225,000  sterlg.,  an  immense  sum  for  sermons." 
— Letter  of  Blacksmith  to  Minister  and  Elders,  Lond.  1759. 

2  See  rents  of  forfeited  estates  in  Murray's  York  Buildings  Co.  "Rental  of 
Lochnew  estate,  1734.— Dundonnie  lands  paid  £11  : 2  :  2|  silver  rent,  2  bolls 
meal,  2  bolls  bear,  1  wether,  1  lamb,  1  stone  butter  (rental  in  1862  was  £292). 
Auchnotroch  farm  paid  £5:11:11  silver  rent,  2  bolls  meal,  2  bolls  bear,  1  lamb, 
2  quarters  butter,  12  chickens  (rental  in  1862  was  £165)".— Hereditary  Sheriffs 
of  Galloivay,  p.  528.  On  Kirklands,  in  Strathblane,  in  1726  there  were  14  tenants 
who  paid  £432  Scots,  8  bolls  meal,  9  hens,  1  dozen  capons,  28  days'  shearing.— 
Guthrie-Smith's  Strathblane,  p.  317. 

*  At  Tarland  Lord  Aberdeen  had  a  girual  to  hold  600  bolls. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  163 

owing  to  those  inconvenient  superabundant  supplies  of  grain, 
mutton,  poultry,  and  fish.  Stewart  of  Appin  ^  was  said  to 
have  received  in  rent  an  ox  for  every  week,  a  goat  or  sheep 
for  every  day  of  the  year,  while  he  had  fowls,  cheese,  eggs, 
past  all  reckoning.  It  was  a  relief,  therefore,  for  such  pro- 
prietors to  dispense  them  to  the  guests  that  filled  their  houses 
and  emptied  their  larders. 

The  exactions  to  which  tenants  were  subjected  were  hard 
to  bear.  Whatever  the  season  was,  "  kain  "  "  eggs  and  fowls 
must  be  sent  to  the  "  big  house,"  every  egg  being  cautiously 
examined  by  the  lady,  who  measured  them  with  rings  of  different 
sizes,^ — those  that  passed  the  first  being  reckoned  twelve  to 
the  dozen;  but  fifteen  of  the  second  size  and  eighteen  of  the  third 
were  required  to  count  as  a  dozen.  The  poor  tenant,  therefore, 
was  compelled  to  keep  a  great  stock  of  midden  fowls  which  ate 
up  his  meagre  crops  and  grain.^  But  far  worse  to  endure  were 
the  demands  on  the  time  and  labour  of  the  farmers,  which  were 
exacted  as  "  customs."  They  remind  us  of  the  oppressions  and 
exactions  borne  by  the  peasants  of  France  under  the  ancien 
rdgime,  which  stirred  the  fury  of  the  people  against  the  noUesse. 
Indeed,  the  burdens  and  corvScs  under  stay-at-home  lairds  were 
hardly  less  harassing,  if  they  were  more  tolerable,  than  those 
under  absentee  nobles.  One  of  the  worst  hardships  was  con- 
nected with  multures  or  grindings.  Almost  all  the  land  was 
"  thirlled  "  or  "  astricted  "  to  particular  mills  on  the  estate  by 
old  feudal  rights.^  Every  particle  of  grain  must  be  taken  to 
these  mills  except  the  seed  corn ;  and  for  his  due  the  miller 
exacted  every  eleventh  peck,  and  in  some  places,  such  as 
Dumfriesshire  and  Eoss-shire,  every  eighth  peck,  whether  the 
grain  was  ground  by  him  or  not,  while  the  servant  took  as 
"  knaveship  "  a  forpit  (one-fourth  of  a  peck)  out  of  every  boll. 
Some  of  the  old  astricted  mills  were  placed  on  streams  which 

^  Stewart's  Sketches  of  Highlands,  i.  46. 

2  "Kain,"  from  the  Frencli  ccns. 

2  Wight's  I'rescnt  State  of  Uushandry,  iv.  p.  53. 

*  In  some  districts  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  the  landlord  was  also 
entitled,  under  feudal  privileges,  to  take  the  herial  horse,  or  best  ox,  or  other 
article  of  value,  from  the  widow  of  the  tenant. — Hereditary  Sheriffs,  p.  519. 

°  Agric.  of  Eoss-shire,  p.  125  ;  Bryce-Johnstone's  Agric.  of  Dumfriesshire, 
pp.  88-106. 


i64     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

dried  up  in  summer,  and  if  the  farmer,  not  being  able  to  wait 
till  the  rain  came  to  move  the  wheel,  sent  his  grain  to  another 
mill  which  was  working,  he  paid  two  multures — one  to  the  mill 
which  ground  his  corn,  and  another  to  the  "  thirlled  "  mill  which 
could  not  grind  it.^  If  the  poor  man  ventured  to  sell  his  oats 
unground  he  was  prosecuted  for  depriving  the  miller  of  his  due. 
If  the  air  was  too  calm  to  drive  the  windmill,  too  frosty,  or  too 
wet,  the  grain  was  kept  in  the  mill  so  long  that  it  was  destroyed 
by  the  vermin.  What  made  these  rules  almost  unbearable  was 
the  insolence  and  negligence  of  the  millers,  against  whom  popular 
dislike  and  suspicion  were  inveterate.  Had  they  not  side-sleeves" 
to  secrete  furtive  extracts  of  meal  ?  ^  Had  they  not  small 
pokes  hung  to  receive  further  snatches  of  grain  from  their 
reluctant  customers  ?  Had  they  not  unstamped  measures  of 
dubious  accuracy  to  measure  their  dues  ?  So  the  people  in 
their  anger  hinted.  The  miller  could  demand  on  solemn  oath 
a  statement  of  every  pea  and  barley  corn  given  to  the  horses  or 
dropped  to  the  hens. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  a  system  so  iniquitous  could  not 
long  survive  the  rise  of  prosperity  and  progress  of  independ- 
ence in  Scotland  after  the  middle  of  the  century ;  yet  in  many 
places  such  restrictions  continued  till  its  close.  An  authority, 
writing  in  1795,^  declares  that  "what  with  want  of  water  at 
one  time  and  want  of  wind  at  another,  I  have  known  instances 
of  these  persons  being  forced  to  travel  to  a  distance  of  three 
miles  to  a  mill  three  or  four  times  over,  to  be  employed  a 
whole  week  for  grinding  half-a-dozen  bolls  of  meal.  In 
short,  there  is  not  in  this  island  such  a  complete  remain  of 
feudal  despotism  as  in  the  practice  respecting  mills  in  Aberdeen- 
shire. I  have  seen  poor  farmers  by  vexation  and  despair 
reduced  to  tears  to  supplicate  from  the  miller  what  they  ought 
to  have  demanded  from  him."  *  Besides  all  these  obligations 
to  the  miller,  the  farmers  were  further  bound  to  drive  material 
for  repairing  the  mill,  to  thatch  it,  to  carry  mill-stones  for  it, 

^  Ure's  Dwinhartonshirc,  p.  102  ;  Agric.  of  Eoss-shirc,  p.  121. 

^  Parish  of  Shotts,  p.  221  ;  Robertson's  Agric,  of  Aicrdeenshire,  p.  48  ; 
Stat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Barrie,  iv.  245. 

^  Robertson's  Agric.  of  Aberdeenshire,  p.  48. 

■*  Johnstone's  Agric.  of  Burnfriesshire,  Appendix  43  ;  Webster's  Agric.  of 
Galloway,  p.  37. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  165 

and  to  clean  the  mill-lead,  half  a  mile  long,  which  the  miller's 
own  cattle  had  broken  down. 

Yet  more  burdens  were  laid  upon  the  farmers'  shoulders — 
irksome  services  which  they  had  to  render  to  the  landlord. 
They  had  to  till,  to  manure,  to  sow,  and  to  reap  his  infield,  to 
cart  peat  for  his  fires,  to  thatch  part  of  his  houses,  to  supply 
"  Simmons  "  or  straw  and  heather  ropes  for  fastening  his  roofs 
and  stacks,  and  at  the  most  critical  moment  of  their  own 
harvesting  they  might  be  called  away  with  their  men  and  oxen 
to  render  their  allotted  number  of  days'  shearing  or  "  leading 
in  "  for  the  laird.  After  all  these  exasperating  demands  upon 
his  time  and  earnings  the  farmer  rarely  looked  for  profits 
from  his  husbandry — only  enough  to  exist  upon.  All  his 
produce  went,  according  to  the  bitter  saying,  into  three  shares  : 
"  Ane  to  saw,  ane  to  gnaw,  and  ane  to  pay  the  laird  witha'."  ^ 

While  the  tenants  were  poor  and  oppressed — yet  less  by 
tyranny  of  superiors  than  by  the  tyranny  of  custom — the 
landowners  themselves  were  deplorably  poor  and  needy ;  for 
being  paid  chiefly  in  kind,  they  had  little  silver  10  spend ; 
their  incomes  were  small,  owing  to  the  miserable  condition  of 
farming ;  and  the  smallness  of  their  incomes  in  turn  prevented 
their  developing  industry,  adopting  new  methods,  and  improv- 
ing their  properties,  however  they  might  desire  it.  The  laird 
had  no  credit  on  which  to  raise  funds  ;  ^  he  could  not  get  a  loan 
of  even  the  smallest  sum,  unless  he  got  several  other  lairds 
or  men  of  substance  to  become  security  for  him ;  he  could 
only  obtain  loans  on  "  wadset " — a  legal  arrangement  which 
put  estates  in  pawn,  binding  the  owner  to  surrender  his 
property  if  he  could  not  meet  the  lender's  claims  on  a  specified 
date.  In  the  dearth  of  money  it  was  not  unusual  for  a 
gentleman  to  assign  to  another  the  debts  which  were  due  to 
him,  so  that  bills  and  bonds  in  default  of  money  became 
regular  paper  currency.  On  other  occasions  the  grain  stored 
in  the  girnals  was  given  in  payment  of  other  goods,  and  the 
tradesmen  were  paid  in  so  many  firlots  oats  and  barley,  owing 
to  dearth  of  coin.^     For  the  same  reason  in  the  Highlands 

^  Stat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Bendochy. 

^  Fullarton's  Agric.  of  Ayrshire. 

3  Book  of  Qlamis,  Scottish  Hist.  Society,  p.  64  ;  Farmer's  Mag.  1804. 


1 66      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

there  was  only  a  trade  by  barter,  and  in  districts  in  the 
Lowlands,  it  is  said,  masters  paid  their  nailmakers  in  nails, 
and  they  in  turn  bartered  them  for  bread  or  drink  at  the 
ale-house.^ 

The  want  of  enterprise,  the  persistence  in  inveterate  ways, 
and  the  reluctance  to  improve  the  soil  and  reclaim  waste  land, 
or  to  enclose,  was  excused  and  explained  by  some  farmers  in 
those  days  by  the  fact  that,  having  no  leases,  they  might  be 
turned  out  of  their  land  any  year,  or  their  rents  might  be 
raised  the  moment  they  had  by  their  exertions  and  outlay  im- 
proved the  ground.^  In  East  Lothian,  where  the  leases  had 
been  introduced  about  the  beginning  of  the  century  amongst 
an  enterprising  class,^  and  under  an  enterprising  laird,  there 
had  been  a  marked  improvement  in  the  farming,  greater 
activity,  and  more  experiments  with  turnips  and  other  produce. 
But  the  hesitation  to  alter  old  methods  was  less  due  to  want 
of  security  of  reaping  the  fruit  of  their  labour,  than  to 
prejudice,  indolence,  and  obstinacy  in  retaining  old  and  easy 
customs. 

There  was  nothing  which  hindered  agricultural  progress 
more  than  the  difficulty  of  communication  and  conveyance 
between  farms  and  towns  for  markets  and  seaports.  The 
produce  was  carried  in  sacks  on  horseback,  or  in  later  years 
on  tumbrils,  which  were  sledges  on  tumbling  wheels  of  solid 
wood  revolving  with  the  wooden  axle-trees.^  These  vehicles 
were  so  small  that  in  a  narrow  passage  the  carter  could  lift 
them,  for  they  held  little  more  than  a  wheelbarrow,  though 
they  suited  the  meagre,  half-starved  beasts  that  dragged  them. 
They  had  wheels  a  foot  and  a  half  in  diameter,  made  of  three 
pieces  of  wood  pinned  together  like  the  lid  of  a  butter  firkin, 
which  quickly  wore  out,  and  became  utterly  shapeless.  Yet 
even  these  modes  of  conveyance  were  a  triumph  of  mechanism 

^  Smith's  Wealth  of  Nations,  bk.  i.  chap.  iv. 

^  P.  124,  Hibshandry  Anatomised,  by  Jas.  Donaldson,  1697 — the  first  book  on 
husbandry  published  in  Scotland  ;  Essay  on  Ways  and  Means  of  Enclosing,  1729. 

^  One  of  the  first  to  introduce  leases  was  Adam  Cockburn  of  Orraiston,  Lord 
Justice  -  Clerk  in  1698,  and  his  son  John— called  the  "Father  of  Scottish 
Husbandry,"  continued  and  extended  this  arrangement  with  results  strikingly 
successful.— i^armcr's  Mag.  1704  ;  Hepburn's  Agric.  of  East  Lothian. 

*  Burt's  Letters,  i.  13  ;  Tour  thro'  Britain,  iv.  13. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  167 

when  the  century  was  young.  Carts  were  a  later  institution/ 
and  when  in  1723  one  carried  a  tiny  load  of  coals  from  East 
Kilbride  to  Cambuslang,  "  crowds  of  people,"  it  is  recorded, 
"  went  out  to  see  the  wonderful  machine ;  they  looked  with 
surprise  and  returned  with  astonishment."  Yet  in  many  parts 
of  the  Lowlands  they  did  not  come  into  common  use  until 
1760;  while  in  the  northern  districts  sledges  and  creels,  borne 
on  the  backs  of  women,  were  employed  to  the  end  of  the 
century. 

However  admirable  the  invention  was  seen  to  be,  it  was  of 
no  practical  use  as  long  as  the  roads  were  so  bad  that  carts 
could  not  be  driven  in  them.^  In  driest  weather  highways 
were  unfit  for  carriages,  and  in  wet  weather  were  almost  im- 
passable even  by  horses — deep  ruts  of  mire,  covered  with  big 
stones,  now  winding  up  heights,  now  zig-zagging  down  steep 
hills,  to  avoid  the  swamps  and  bogs.  It  was  this  hazardous 
state  of  paths  and  highways  which  obliged  judges  to  "  ride 
on  circuit " ;  and  this  practice,  which  was  begun  as  a  physical 
necessity,  was  conservatively  continued  as  a  most  dignified  habit; 
so  ^  that  in  1744  Lord  Dun  resigned  his  judgeship  because  he 
was  no  longer  able  to  ride.  It  was  therefore  needless  to 
introduce  carts  till  the  tracks  were  fit  for  them,  seeing  that  on 
their  first  employment  the  drivers  required  to  carry  spades  to 
fill  up  the  ruts  and  holes  to  allow  them  to  advance  a  hundred 
yards.  When  Lord  Cathcart,  so  late  as  1753,  offered  carts  to 
his  tenants  in  Ayrshire,  the  roads  were  so  execrable  that  few 
accepted  them  as  a  gift. 

By  statute,  from  1719,  able-bodied  men  in  every  district 
were  enjoined  to  give  six  days'  labour  in  improving  the  high- 
ways— hence  called  "  Statute  Labour  roads " ;  but  this  Act 
was  quietly  ignored,  and  in  most  places  the  utmost  effort 
made  was  a  few  hours'  grudging  labour  on  what  was  called 
"  Parish  road  day,"  "*  when  the  male  inhabitants  turned  out  for 

^  Ure's  Ruthcrglen  mul  East  Kilbride,  p.  187. 

-  The  carts  used  about  1780  were  wholly  made  of  birch  without  any  iron, 
costing  6s.  8d.  in  Nairnshire.  A  fanner  in  1743  got  two  carts  for  7s.,  "  which 
will  give  a  notion  of  the  quality,  seeing  that  in  1800  a  cart  cost  £10."— 
"  Husbandry  of  Forfarshire,"  Farmer's  Mag.,  Feb.  and  May  1806. 

■'  Ramsay's  Scotlatul  and  Scotsmen,  i.  86. 

•*  Campbell's  Balmerino  and  its  Ahhey,  p.  240. 


l68     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

their  perfunctory  and  ineffectual  task.  The  famous  efforts  of 
General  Wade,  begun  in  1726,  only  affected  260  miles  of  the 
main  Highland  routes ;  where,  however,  the  marvellous  change 
enabled  Capt.  Burt  in  1739  ^  to  rejoice  that  he  travelled  roads 
"  smooth  as  Constitution  Hill,"  which  a  few  years  before  were 
dangerous  from  stones  and  deep  ruts  in  dry  weather,  and 
became  hopeless  bogs  or  brawling  watercourses  in  rain.^  Yet 
the  Highlanders  angrily  grumbled  at  the  change ;  complaining 
bitterly  that  the  gravel  wore  away  the  unshod  horses'  hoofs, 
which  hitherto  had  gone  so  lightly  over  the  springy  heather, 
while  there  was  not  a  forge  to  make  or  mend  a  shoe  within 
fifty  miles. 

So  long  as  the  roads  continued  in  this  miserable  state 
carts,  it  is  evident,  were  of  no  avail,  and  everything  was  carried 
on  the  backs  of  horses.  Farmers  could  only  convey  their 
oats  and  barley  to  market  at  the  tardy  rate  of  one  boll  a  day 
on  horseback.^  In  the  Lowlands  it  was  a  hard  day's  work  for 
a  horse  to  carry  from  a  pit  four  mUes  off  a  load  of  two  cwts. 
of  coal  in  sacks.  Even  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Edinburgh, 
about  1750,  farmers  conveyed  on  horseback  their  trusses  of 
hay  and  straw  to  town,  returning  with  their  bags  full  of  coal. 

Nothing  wrought  so  remarkable  a  change  in  civilising  the 
country,  in  developing  its  trade,  and  improving  the  social  and 
industrial  condition  of  the  people,  as  the  Turnpike  Eoad  Act 
of  1751.  Before  many  years  passed  by  the  public  roads 
became  smooth  and  easy ;  produce  was  conveyed  to  markets 
at  a  tenth  of  the  former  cost  and  in  a  tenth  of  the  former 
time  ;  and  a  complete  revolution  was  made — as  we  shall  after- 
wards see — in  the  whole  economical  condition  of  the  land. 

^  Letters  from  the.  North,  ii. 

-  We  must  remember  that  in  many  parts  of  England  roads  between  large 
towns  were  in  scarcely  better  state.     See  Arthur  Young's  Political  Farmer. 

^  Hepburn's  Agric.  ji.  50:  "Horses  seldom  carried  more  than  about  6 
firlots  of  wheat  or  of  pease  ;  about  a  boll  of  barley,  or  5  firlots  of  oats." 
Hepburn's  Agric.  of  E.  Lothian,  p.  151,  1794  :  "Even  to  this  day  a  'load'  of 
meal  means  2  bolls,  a  '  load '  of  coals  3  cwts.,  a  '  load '  of  straw  14  stones  or  2 
cwts. — being  the  amount  that  could  be  carried  in  these  old  times." 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  169 


V 

Every  improvement  was  slow  and  obstinately  resisted  by 
an  impecunious  gentry  and  a  lethargic  and  timid  tenantry. 

Few  things  had  struck  English  travellers  for  generations 
with  more  surprise  than  the  open,  unenclosed,  hedgeless  land- 
scape, with  immense  expanses  of  bleak,  waste  land.  There 
were,  in  fact,  no  enclosures  except  round  the  gardens  of 
gentlemen's  houses  in  the  early  part  of  the  century ;  farms 
and  fields  were  left  entirely  exposed,  over  which  man  and 
beast  could  wander  at  their  will.  It  can  easily  be  imagined 
how  dreary,  dismal,  and  monotonous  must  have  been  the 
scenery,  without  wall,  or  hedge,  or  tree,  and  not  a  bush  beyond 
a  whin  to  give  variety  to  the  view  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach.  The  early  attempts  of  enterprising  landlords  about 
1 7 1 5  to  enclose  the  land  encountered  determined  opposition : 
the  people  were  indignant  at  their  right  of  pasturing  their 
cattle  on  other  men's  ground  being  grossly  infringed ;  farmers 
were  suspicious  of  their  rents  being  raised ;  labourers  were 
excited  at  the  prospect  of  their  occupation  as  herds  being 
endangered.  Meanwhile  alarmists  declared  that  hedges  would 
harbour  birds  which  would  utterly  devour  their  grain,  and 
that  "  they  would  prevent  the  circulation  of  the  air  necessary 
to  winnow  the  grain  for  the  harvest."  ^ 

Motives  of  all  complexions,  theories  of  all  sorts,  combined 
to  raise  opposition  to  the  building  of  a  dyke  or  the  planting  of 
a  hedge.  The  rebellion  of  1715  had  left  the  country  people, 
especially  in  the  south,  unruly  and  unsettled,  and  an  unquiet 
spirit  quickly  showed  itself  against  landlords  who  resolved  to 
enclose  their  lands  and  stock  them  with  black  cattle.  Tenants 
were  turned  out  of  their  holdings,  shepherds  were  deprived  of 
their  occupation.  In  1725  large  bands  of  men  and  women 
attacked  the  newly-reared  enclosures  in  Galloway.  Armed 
with  pitchforks  and  stakes,  they  set  forth  at  night  to  spoil  and 
overturn  the  dykes,  and  whenever  the  leaders  raised  their  cry, 
"  Ower  wi'  it,"  down  went  the  walls  into  a  heap  of  stones  amidst 

^  Stat.Acd.  Scot.,  Rhynd,  iv.  181,  Kilspindie,  iv.  282  ;  'bloxex's  Short  Account, 
p.  9. 


I70     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

exulting  shouts.  Other  bands  went  as  "  houghers  "  to  maim 
and  destroy  the  cattle  of  the  larger  tenants  who  favoured  the 
loathed  enclosures.  To  stay  the  riots,  the  military  were  called 
out  and  the  clergy  were  called  in.  The  General  Assembly 
ordered  warnings  to  be  given  from  the  pulpits  against  the 
levelling  practices  of  these  districts.  Many  were  imprisoned, 
some  were  transported;  but  though  order  was  restored,  the 
prejudices  of  the  people  remained  stubborn  and  violent,  and 
the  making  of  enclosures  by  hedge  or  dyke  received  a  check 
for  a  generation. 

In  1740  there  came  a  disastrous  dearth  in  the  land:  the 
seasons,  so  inclement,  had  spoiled  the  crops;  the  winter,  so 
severe,  destroyed  the  cattle  in  their  thousands ;  in  many 
districts  the  people  were  starving,  eager  to  feed  on  rubbish 
and  weeds  and  snails,  and  many  died  of  hunger.  It  had  been 
as  keen  a  frost  in  England  as  in  all  the  north  of  Europe,  in 
the  memorable  January  when  the  Thames,  being  frozen  over 
for  many  feet,  a  fair  was  held  and  shows  performed  to  multi- 
tudes ;  when  in  the  Newcastle  pits  the  men  in  deep  mines 
needed  fire  to  keep  themselves  warm ;  and  people  perished  of 
cold  in  the  fields  and  streets,  and  wild  beasts  died  in  vast 
numbers.  But,  while  in  Scotland  cattle  died  by  thousands 
every  winter,  and  in  severe  seasons  one-half  or  a  third  of  the 
flocks  and  herds  were  lost,  in  England,  throughout  the  hardest 
winter,  even  such  as  1740,  the  cattle  lived  unscathed.  The 
remarkable  difference  between  the  two  countries  was  not  due 
to  difference  in  climate,  but  to  the  fact  that  in  the  south 
there  was  ample  food  for  the  cattle,  and  in  the  north  there  was 
not.  In  England,  by  better  cultivation,  the  land  was  more 
productive ;  there  was  hay,  there  were  artificial  grasses,  produc- 
ing three  times  the  quantity  of  natural  grasses ;  and,  since 
1716,  turnips  had  been  introduced  into  fields,  yielding  pro- 
vender in  abundance.  In  Scotland,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
was  little  grass  in  summer,  save  some,  rank  and  coarse,  growing 
in  hollows ;  and  as  there  was  no  hay  to  store  in  winter,  there 
was  only  straw  and  mashed  whins  to  feed  them  with.^     So 

^  "Here,"  writes  Lord  Leven  from  Melville  Castle,  "we  have  no  grass  at 
all  ;  if  we  liave  no  change  of  weather  the  people  must  starve.  The  poor 
creatures  in  the  neighbourhood  come  here  begging  leave  to  pull  nettles  about 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  171 

early  as  1708  Lord  Haddington  had  sown  rye  grass  and  clover, 
but  these  met  with  little  favour  from  farmers  who  even 
in  the  middle  of  the  century  despised  them  as  "  English  weeds," 
which  no  self-respecting  beast  would  eat.  It  was  not  till  the 
middle  of  the  century  that  the  more  enterprising  tenantry 
cultivated  artificial  grasses  in  rotation  with  grain ;  at  which 
spectacle  the  veterans  pronounced  "  that  it  was  a  shame  to  see 
beasts'  meat  growing  where  man's  meat  should  grow."  ^ 

Although  introduced  into  England  from  Holland  for  field 
cultivation  in  1716,"  turnips  were  only  sown  by  two  or  three 
energetic  proprietors  before  1739,  and  being  sown  in  little 
patches  broadcast,  and  never  hoed,  they  naturally  failed.  Great 
excitement  was  caused  about  Melrose  in  1747  by  the  rumour 
that  a  new  strange  vegetable  was  to  be  sown.^  One  morning 
Dr.  John  Eutherford  came  to  his  field  with  mysterious  bags, 
and  the  inhabitants,  gathering  in  crowds,  watched  the  "  doctor's 
man  "  casting  seed  in  the  wake  of  the  plough,  while  another  man 
behind  dragged  a  whin  brush  behind  to  cover  the  seed  with 
the  earth.  When  it  sprang  up  the  curious  people  pulled  up 
the  odd  weeds  to  examine  them  in  spite  of  threats  by 
tuck  of  drum,  and  of  iron  caltrops  or  iron  traps.  When  the 
bullocks  were  fed  on  the  turnips  they  grew  so  big  that  people 
accustomed  to  stunted  creatures  would  not  eat  such  monsters.^ 
So  late  as  1774  farmers  in  Dumbartonshire  would  not  sow 

the  dykes  for  themselves,  and  heather  and  moss  for  their  beasts.  We  have 
daily  shoals  of  20  with  death  on  their  faces,  and  at  the  same  time  the  country 
is  so  loose  that  the  people  are  forced  to  watch  their  homes  and  barns." — April, 
1740.     The  Mclvilles  and  Earls  of  Melville,  by  Fraser,  i.  316. 

1  Stat.  Acct.  Scot.,  X.  612.  In  1750  a  Lord  of  Session,  walking  one  day 
with  a  friend  through  the  field  when  his  men  were  weeding  the  corn,  ex- 
pressed gratitude  to  Providence  for  raising  such  a  quantity  of  thistles,  "as 
otherwise  when  we  cannot  allow  our  good  corn  land  to  be  in  pasture,  how 
could  we  find  summer  food  for  our  working  horses  ? " — Stewart's  Sketches  of 
Hicjhlaiuls,  ii.  138. 

-  About  the  middle  of  the  century  threshing  of  whins  with  flails  for 
horses'  food  used  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Glasgow. — Brown's  Hist.  Glasgoiv, 
p.  180. 

=*  Lord  Stair  was  said  to  be  "  tlie  first  to  have  sown"  turnips  in  the  open 
fields,  but  then  so  many  are  "said  to  have  been  the  first  "at  all  these  experi- 
ments !  Certainly  Cockburn  of  Ormiston  planted  potatoes  in  1724,  and  sowed 
turnips  in  1725,  being  the  first  to  raise  turnips  in  dviW.— Farmer  s  Magazine, 
1804,  "Life  of  J.  Cockburn." 

■•  Vyq's  Acjric.  of  Roxburghshire  ;  Johnstone's  ^g^nV.  of  Selkirkshire,  p.  35. 


172     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

them,  although  stimulated  by  bribes,^  Treated  as  delicacies, 
Captain  Topham  was  amused  to  see  turnips  in  Edinburgh 
used  as  part  of  the  dessert  at  the  principal  houses ;  and  the 
author  of  Humphrey  Clinker  allows  that  they  were  used  as 
"  whets  "  at  dinner  parties.^ 

The  same  reluctance  was  shown  in  adopting  potatoes  as  a 
produce  of  the  fields.  They  had  been  cultivated  in  a  few 
private  gardens  ^  in  the  beginning  of  the  century,  but  they 
were  rarely  raised  in  fields  before  1735,  or  produced  in  the 
kailyards  of  the  people.  Hitherto  they  had  been  sold  as 
delicacies  in  ounces  and  pounds ;  though  after  the  middle  of -the 
century  they  became  the  common  food  of  the  country.  Even 
in  1740  two  sackfuls  on  a  market  day  supplied  the  demands  of 
the  five  thousand  inhabitants  of  Paisley.  At  first  they  were 
regarded  with  angry  suspicion,  under  the  belief  that  farmers 
were  going  to  deprive  their  people  of  their  proper  nourishment, 
which  could  only  be  found  in  the  native  meal,  and  they  would 
have  none  of  them.  Keenest  and  fiercest  was  the  antipathy 
felt  in  the  Highlands  to  these  suspicious  tubers,  and  when  the 
Chief  Clanronald,  in  17-43,^  brought  a  small  quantity  to  South 
Uist,  the  crofters  refused  to  plant  them  till  their  fine  "  High- 
land pride  " — as  stubborn  prejudice  is  euphemistically  termed 
— was  mastered  by  imprisonment.  When  autumn  came  they 
brought  the  obnoxious  roots  to  the  chiefs  door,  protesting 
that  he  might  force  them  to  plant  them,  but  he  could  not 
force  them  to  eat  them.  Hunger,  however,  was  the  most 
effective  argument,  and  successive  years  of  dearth  were 
effectual  in  overcoming  prejudice ;    so  that  in  twenty  years, 

^  Ure's  ^P'ric.  of  Dumbartonshire,  p.  51. 

^  Letters  from  Edinburgh,  p.  229  ;  Hujnphrey  Clinker. 

^  They  are  mentioned  as  vegetables  for  the  garden,  however,  as  well  as 
turnips,  in  Scots  Gardener,  by  John  Keid,  1683.  And  as  early  as  1697  the  first 
Scots  writer  on  husbandry  strongly  recommended  their  cultivation  in  fields, 
showing  how  they  should  be  planted,  and  how  they  were  eaten — probably 
abroad.  "The  commonest  way  they  are  made  use  of  are  boyled  and  broken, 
and  stewed  with  butter  and  new  milk.  Yea,  some  make  bread  of  them  by 
mixing  them  with  oats  or  barley  meal  after  they  are  broken  and  stewed  with 
milk,  others  parboyle  them  and  bake  them  with  apples  after  the  manner  of 
tarts.  Several  other  wayes  are  they  made  use  of,  as  eating  among  broath  and 
broken  with  kale." — Husbandry  Anatomatized,  p.  129. 

■*  Walker's  Economical  Hist,  of  Hebrides  and  Highlands,  i.  188. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  173 

instead  of  depending  on  a  scanty  supply  of  oatmeal,  High- 
landers subsisted  about  nine  months  of  the  year  on  the 
vegetables  which  they  had  so  indignantly  rejected.-^  We  may 
mark  the  years  between  1740  and  1750  as  the  period  when 
potatoes  were  coming  into  cultivation  m  Scotland.^ 

Meanwhile,  as  these  changes  were  being  made,  the  gray 
oats,  the  here,  and  pease  held  the  field.  Though  in  former 
times  wheat  seems  to  have  been  grown  extensively  in  many 
parts  of  Scotland,  very  little  of  it  was  raised  at  this  time,  and  it 
was  too  scarce  and  too  dear  for  common  consumption.^  Indeed, 
the  very  name  of  the  grain  became  a  metaphor  for  whatever 
was  delectable  and  unattainable,  as  we  notice  when  the  Eev. 
Thomas  Boston  in  his  Memoirs  speaks  plaintively  of  the 
"  wheat-bread  days  of  youth."  By  rich  and  poor  wheat-bread 
was  not  used,  and  was  only  presented  in  slices  beside  the  sweet 
cake  at  the  tea-tables  of  the  gentry. 

For  the  manufacture  of  the  grain  into  food  every  operation 
was  primitive,  involving  a  maximum  of  labour  with  a  mini- 
mum of  profit.  After  the  harvest  was  reaped,  the  flail  was  the 
only  means  of  separating  grain  from  the  straw ;  then  the  corn 
was  taken  to  be  winnowed  on  hand-riddles  in  the  open  air  or 
hill  tops,  known  as  "  shilling  hills  "  or  laws,  or  in  barns  so 
constructed  that  the  west  wind  might  pass  through.  In  1 7 1 0 
James  Meikle  had  introduced  the  use  of  fanners,  which,  in 
spite  of  pious  objections  to  those  human  means  of  raising  the 
wind,  gradually  made  their  way  among  the  more  enlightened 
and  enterprising  farmers.*  The  only  mode  of  grinding  barley 
which  prevailed  till  nearly  the  middle  of  the  century  was  by 
bruising  in  a  mortar  or  "knocking   stones."     A  little  water 

^  Potatoes  first  introduced  into  Galloway  from  Ireland  in  1725  by  a  tenant 
who  carried  the  produce  to  Edinburgh  on  horseback,  where  he  sold  them  in 
ounces  and  pounds. — Ilist.  of  Galloway.  Half  an  acre  planted  on  trial  in 
Kilsyth  in  \1'i,Q.—Stat.  Ace.  Scot.,  xvii.  282. 

-  Planted  in  Orkney  in  \1^0.—Stat.  Ace.  Scot.,  xii.  354. 

3  Ramsay's  Scot,  and  Scots.  In  the  year  1727,  when  a  farmer  cultivated  8  acres 
of  wheat  (in  Aberdeenshire),  it  was  considered  so  remarkable  that  the  whole 
neighbourhood  was  excited. — Robertson's  Hicral  Bccollcctions,  247.  "About 
1768  only  2  sixpenny  wheat  loaves  brought  from  Perth  to  two  private  families 
in  the  week." — Stat.  Ace.  Scot.,  Auchterardcr,  iv.  46.  Wheat  chiefly  produced 
in  Lothians. 

■*  Hepburn's -(4^nc.  0/ East  Lothian  ;  Farmer  s  Magazine,  1804. 


174      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

was  put  with  the  barley  into  the  nether  stone  to  make  the 
grain  part  with  the  husk,  and  it  was  then  beaten  with  a 
wooden  mell  till  the  "  knockit  here  "  was  fit  for  making  broth. 
Not  till  1742  did  mills  for  grinding  barley  come  into  active 
operation  to  supplant  these  humble,  rude,  and  wasteful  methods. 
Yet  these  mills  had  been  known  in  Scotland  long  before  that 
time.  In  1710  Andrew  Fletcher  of  Salton  was  residing  in 
Holland,  and  there  he  had  been  struck  by  the  advantage  of  the 
barley  mill  for  producing  pearl  or  pot  barley  over  the  savage 
process  at  home.  He  thereupon  summoned  his  wheelwright, 
James  Meikle,  a  man  of  great  sagacity  and  mechanic  of  great 
ingenuity,  to  come  over  to  take  plans  of  these  machines.  This 
he  did — being  assigned  in  the  agreement  that  very  modest  daily 
sum  of  one  shilling  sterling  for  his  entertainment  and  one  shilling 
for  wages ;  with  the  equally  modest  promise  and  unflattering 
valuation  of  five  pounds  sterling  to  his  wife  and  children  in 
the  event  of  his  losing  his  life  in  the  enterprise  and  journey.^ 
He  returned  in  safety  and  success,  bringing  with  him  the  iron 
work  made  in  Holland,  together  with  the  model  of  fanners, — a 
still  more  successful  innovation, — which  he  quickly  introduced. 
The  barley  mill  was  set  up,  and  worked  along  with  Meikle  by 
Henry  Fletcher,  the  laird's  younger  brother,  and  tenant  at 
Salton.  But  the  moving  spirit  of  this  enterprise  was  Mrs. 
Henry  Fletcher,  who  managed  everything,  had  introduced 
the  making  of  Holland  cloth  in  the  field  adjoining  the  mill, 
and  who  superintended  the  mill  itself.  Tradition  told  how 
"  Lady  Salton "  would  walk  down  to  her  office  spinning  as 
she  went,  and  then  sit  throughout  the  day  transacting  busi- 
ness, receiving  orders  in  a  room  whose  door  was  secured  by  a 
chain  to  prevent  strangers  entering  to  examine  the  work  and 
discover  the  secret  of  its  mechanism.  "  Salton  mill  office " 
became  a  centre  of  business,  and  "  Salton  barley  meal "  was 
known  over  all  the  country,  and  painted  over  the  shop  door  of 
every  retailer.  But  the  use  of  the  mill  for  manufacturing  pot 
barley  was  confined  to  East  Lothian  for  about  thirty  years, 
and  the  primitive  method  elsewhere  went  on  as  before. 

A  still  more  barbarous  method  of  getting  the  husk  from 

^  Agreement  between  Ja-;.  Meikle  and  Andrew  Fletcher,  in  Farmer's  Mac.y 
1804  ;  Hepburn's  Agric.  of  East  Lothian. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  17S 

the  grain  of  oats  had  been  in  operation  when  the  century  was 
young  in  the  Lowlands,  and  continued  till  its  close  in  districts 
in  the  Highlands  and  Hebrides.  That  consisted  of  setting  fire 
to  several  sheaves  of  corn  from  the  field ;  when  the  ashes 
were  blown  away  the  grain  was  left  parched,  and  thereupon 
beaten  into  meal — an  expeditious  device,  by  which  oats  growing 
in  the  fields  in  the  morning  might  appear  as  bannocks  in  the 
afternoon ;  but  it  was  a  disastrously  improvident  method,  which 
destroyed  all  the  straw,  so  much  needed  for  provender  by  the 
starving  cattle.^ 

During  this  period  very  little  attention  was  paid  to  cattle- 
breeding  except  in  Galloway.  There  was  too  little  pasture  for 
farmers  to  keep  sheep  or  cattle  on  their  "  mailings  "  or  farms. 
There  was  no  food  for  them  during  the  long  months  in  which 
they  were  housed  or  tethered,  and  the  roads  were  too  broken 
to  send  them  for  sale  or  consumption  in  distant  towns.  In 
spite  of  beef  and  mutton  being  sold  at  l|-d.  or  2d.  a  lb., — and 
a  Scots  lb.  was  equal  to  22|-  ounces  EngHsh, — the  demand 
was  slight,  for  they  were  rarely  eaten  in  farmers'  houses,^  where 
kail  and  meal  and  milk  were  the  staple  ingredients  of  the 
diet,  and  the  gentry  killed  and  salted  what  they  needed  at 
Martinmas.  Country  towns  had  no  butcher's  shop,  and  only  by 
the  tinkling  of  the  bellman  was  it  announced  to  the  inhabit- 
ants that  a  calf  or  a  sheep  was  to  be  killed.  There  was  no 
alternative  but  to  live  on  this  salted  fare  for  half  the  year,  as 
the  cattle,  housed  all  winter  and  fed  sparingly  on  straw,  were 
too  emaciated,  and  their  flesh  too  miserable,  for  any  mortal  to  eat. 

Down  from  the  far-off  glens  were  driven  the  black  cattle, 
half-starved  and  lean,  to  the  trysts — "tryst"  being  the  Scots 
for  an  appointed  place  to  meet — at  Falkirk  or  Crieff,  where 

^  Morer's  Uliorl  Account,  p.  15. 

2  About  the  middle  of  the  century  in  Ayr,  a  town  of  5000  inhabitants,  not 
more  than  50  head  of  cattle  were  killed  annually. — Fullarton's  Survey.  Sir  David 
Kinloch,  in  spring  1732,  sold  10  wedders  to  Edinburgh  butchers,  and  although 
mutton  was  at  that  time  of  year  the  only  fresh  meat  brought  to  market,  the 
butcher  bargained  for  three  dilfcrent  times  to  take  away  the  sheep,  lest  the 
market  be  overstocked.  At  that  time  each  family  in  the  country  killed  and 
salted  what  mutton  and  beef  they  wanted.  "  Mr.  Law  of  Elvinstone  informs  me 
he  remembers  when  there  was  not  a  bullock  slaughtered  in  the  butcher-market 
of  Haddington  during  the  whole  year  except  the  period  called  '  Lardner  time.' " 
— Hepburn's  Agric.  of  East  Lothian,  p.  55. 


176     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

they  were  sold  to  English  dealers' at  from  20  s.  to  £2  a  head; 
or,  if  they  were  emaciated,  the  Highlanders  would  give  them 
for  a  few  shillings.  It  was  a  hard  struggle  for  Highland 
farmers  to  get  provender  for  perhaps  200  head  of  cattle  which 
were  kept  confined  all  winter  and  spring.  They  had  only  straw 
from  about  ten  or  twenty  acres  of  oats  wherewith  to  feed  them, 
and  it  is  not  surprising  that  great  numbers  perished  of  disease 
and  hunger,  and  those  that  survived  sold  at  a  price  often  as  low 
as  lOs,^  The  Gaelic  drovers,  who  knew  no  English,  were  at  the 
mercy  of  smart  Yorkshire  graziers  ;  especially  as  they  could  not, 
or  dared  not,  take  their  unsold  beasts  to  the  far-off  straths  from 
which  they  had  taken  weeks  to  travel,  and  where  the  farmers 
and  crofters  were  expecting  oatmeal  for  their  needy  families. 
As  a  rule  the  best  cattle  left  the  country,  and  the  worst 
remained  at  home. 

The  Highland  sheep  were  of  a  diminutive  breed,  stunted 
from  lack  of  nourishment,  with  fleeces  not  much  longer  than 
goats'  hair;^  so  thin  and  short,  that  while  now  it  takes  six  fleeces 
to  make  a  stone  of  wool,  then  it  required  twenty-seven  of  this 
wool,  which  was  often  plucked  from  the  poor  creatures'  backs. 
From  the  month  of  May  the  lambs  were  almost  starved, 
separated  from  their  mothers  in  order  that  the  milk  might  be 
used  in  the  household,  and  their  little  jaws  gnawed  by  sticks 
fixed  in  their  mouths  to  keep  them  from  sucking,  and  thereby 
from  pasturing.  Firmly  was  it  believed  that  neither  cattle  nor 
sheep  could  withstand  the  blasts  and  snow  of  winter,  and  that 
it  was  necesary  to  keep  them  under  cover  if  the  farmer  wished 
them  to  thrive.  It  is  said  that  a  mere  accident  dispelled 
this  delusion  in  the  North  ;  that  a  laird  in  Perthshire,  who  had 
been  reduced  by  ill  fortune  to  become  an  innkeeper,  let  his 
sheep  run  wild  because  he  was  too  poor  to  feed  them,  and  to 
the  general  amazement  they  were  in  perfect  condition  when 
the  spring  came.^  The  practice  of  stocking  the  ground  there- 
upon began,  and,  spreading  widely,  hill  farming  was  revolu- 
tionised.    By  1750  large  tracts  were  being  changed  to  sheep 

^  Farmer  s  Magazine,  1804. 

'■^  Smith's  Ayric.  Survey  of  Argyllshire,  p.  240  ;  Argyll's  Scotland  as  it  Was, 
i.  204. 

^  Ramsay's  Scotland  and  Scotsmen,  ii.  551. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  177 

walks,  and  land  rose  to  six  or  seven  times  its  former  value.^ 
The  sight  of  sheep  browsing  on  a  Lowland  meadow  did  not 
give  a  pleasant  pastoral  beauty  to  the  landscape.  Their 
fleeces,  covered  with  tar,  moss,  and  dirt,  as  they  crawled  under 
their  woollen  burdens,  made  them  unsightly  objects.  Whether 
originating  or  not  from  a  desire  to  add  weight  to  the  scanty 
wool,  and  impose  on  buyers,  the  farmers  followed  the  custom 
— on  pretext  of  health  and  warmth — of  smearing  their  flocks 
with  dense  tarry  coating,  till  the  original  weight  was  more  than 
doubled;  the  fleece  was  spoiled,  and  the  expense  of  cleaning 
the  wool  made  havoc  of  the  profit.  But,  however  foolish  and 
wasteful  any  practice  might  be,  the  farmers  persisted  in  it  with 
their  wonted  reverence  for  aged  custom.^ 


VI 

Let  us  turn  from  the  land  to  the  people  who  worked  it. 
When  all  labour  was  dilatory  and  every  movement  was  slow, 
the  hours  of  labour  were  extremely  protracted.  Usually  the 
work  between  March  and  October  began  at  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  lasted  till  seven  or  eight  o'clock  at  night — in 
harvest  continuing  as  late  as  ten — with  one  hour's  interval  for 
breakfast,  and  another  hour  for  the  repast  known  as  the 
"  twal'    hour."      This    meal   was    scanty,    for    even    "  bonnet 

^  So  little  was  fresh  meat  used  in  those  days,  that  in  burgh  towns  in  Forfar- 
shire "there  was  often  no  butcher,  and  when  a  man  in  the  district  had  a  calf 
or  few  sheep  for  sale,  the  bellman  went  round  advertising  the  people  to  come 
and  buy." — Farmers  Magazine,  1806.  It  is  said  that  the  only  butcher  in 
Lanark  was  a  weaver  by  trade,  who  before  killing  a  sheep  took  good  care  that 
the  minister,  provost,  and  bailies  took  shares.     The  fact  was  announced  by  the 

bellman — 

Bell-ell-ell, 

There's  a  fat  sheep  to  kill, 

A  leg  for  the  provost, 

Another  for  the  priest ; 

The  bailies  and  the  deacons 

They'll  tak'  the  rest ; 

And  if  the  fourth  leg  we  cannot  sell, 

The  sheep  it  maun  live  and  gang  back  to  the  hill. 

Chambers'  Pojmlar  Rhymes,  1826. 

^  Observations  on  Metliods  of  growing  Woolin  Scot. :  Edin.  1756.  A  favourite 
song  of  farmers  was,  "Tarry  woo'  is  ill  to  spin" — the  only  song  which  Sir  W. 
Scott  sang  at  agricultural  feasts,  to  vociferous  applause  for  well-meant  but  not 
successful  vocal  exertions. 

VOL.  I  12 


1 78      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

laii'ds  "  and  farmers  had  only  a  handful  or  two  of  boiled  beans, 
which  they  carried  in  their  pockets  to  appease  their  hunger  in 
the  fields.^ 

During  winter  and  slack  months  they  had  the  peat  to  dig 
and  carry  on  horseback  from  the  moors,  the  cattle  to  feed, 
straw  ropes  to  make  for  the  harness,  and  halters  of  the 
clippings  of  colts'  manes  and  horses'  tails.  In  the  evenings, 
by  the  dismal  light  of  the  ruffy  in  their  hovels,  the  men  had 
shoes  of  horse-hide  to  furnish  with  double  or  triple  soles, 
while  women  span  on  the  rock  or  spindle  the  flax  which  every 
farmer  grew  on  some  rigs,'  for  the  linen  which  soon  fllLed 
every  press,  and  the  woollen  yarn  from  which  was  made  the 
clothing  of  gray  and  black  woollen  plaiding  and  blankets. 
The  sluggishness  of  labourers  was  one  reason  for  the  long 
hours  of  labour.  Their  laziness  had  passed  into  proverbs  and 
bywords.  Eay,  the  naturalist,  in  1660,  was  struck  by  the 
habit  of  the  ploughmen  putting  on  their  cloaks  when  they 
set  a-ploughing  instead  of  taking  them  off,  and  the  same 
slothfulness  struck  Pennant,  the  traveller,  more  than  a  century 
later.  Scottish  clergy  deplored  and  English  visitors  ridiculed 
the  poverty-stricken  aspect  of  the  peasantry :  their  pinched 
faces,  wrinkled  features,  tattered  dress,  and  foul  skin  and 
fouler  habits  ^ — of  course,  we  discount  somewhat  for  foreigners' 
exaggeration.  In  1763,  when  Lord  Bute  was  high  favourite 
at  Court,  and  many  countrymen  were  living  on  his  patronage, 
Scotland  and  the  Scots  became  specially  odious  to  the  English. 
The  ways,  habits,  and  condition  of  the  Prime  Minister's  com- 
patriots formed  incessant  themes  for  laughter  and  satire,  and 
for  exasperating  jibes  from  every  pamphleteer  and  Grub  Street 

1  Struthers'  Hist,  of  Scotland,  ii.  625  ;  Wight's  Hushandry,  1777,  ii.  27. 
In  Berwickshire  the  rule  was  to  "yoke"  the  horses  at  sunrise  all  year  round. 
J.  Bruce's  Agric.  of  Berwickshire,  p.  104.  When  in  later  days  the  ploughmen 
worked  from  6  to  6  o'clock,  old  folk  called  them  the  "  easy  hours." 

'  Somerville's  Owii  Life  ;  Struthers'  Hist,  of  Scotlaiid,  ii.  224. 

^  ' '  The  common  people  are  such  in  outward  appearance  as  you  would  not 
take  them  at  first  to  be  of  the  human  species,  and  in  their  lives  they  differ  little 
from  the  brutes,  except  in  their  love  of  spirituous  liquors.  .  .  .  They  would  rather 
suffer  poverty  than  work.  .  .  .  The  nastiness  of  the  lower  people  is  really  greater 
than  can  be  reported  ;  their  faces  are  coloured  with  smoke  ;  their  mouths  are 
wide,  and  their  eyes  are  sunk  as  one  pulls  the  face  in  the  midst  of  smoke  ;  their 
hair  is  long  and  almost  covers  their  faces." — Gentleman  s  Magazine,  1766,  p.  211. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  179 

poetaster,  who,  without  a  change  of  shirt  for  his  own  back, 
laughed  at  Scots'  shiftless  poverty.  In  all  the  extravagances 
in  which  lampooners  indulged  there  was,  however,  a  painful^ 
basis  of  fact  for  their  coarse  descriptions.  After  Dr.  Johnson 
had  defined  in  his  Dictionary,  "  Oats,  a  grain  which  in  England 
is  generally  given  to  horses,  but  in  Scotland  supports  the 
people,"  Lord  Elibank  triumphantly  retorted,  "But  where 
will  you  find  such  men  and  such  horses  ?  "  We  may  admire 
the  patriotism,  but  must  regret  the  mendacity,  of  his  lordship, 
for  both  countrymen  and  countrywomen  of  the  poorer  orders — 
"  lean,  shabby,  and  soiled,"  as  the  author  of  HiLniphrey  Clinker 
laments  to  own — were  not  such  as  one  could  boast  of  in 
respect  to  physical  excellence  or  personal  appearance.  The 
English  traveller,  in  1766,  owns  that  in  towns  their  rudeness 
is  wearing  off,  and  that  they  are  almost  civilised  and  indus- 
trious in  trading  towns ;  but  in  the  rural  districts  they  had 
not  progressed  much  from  a  condition  of  poverty  which  was 
in  truth  deplorable.  The  food  of  the  farmers  and  workers 
was  monotonously  poor,  for  they  had  nothing  to  eat  except 
the  everlasting  oatmeal  and  "  knockit  here,"  and  kail  greens 
from  the  yards — for  other  vegetables  were  almost  unknown  to 
them  ;  beef  and  mutton  they  never  tasted,  unless  a  cow  or 
sheep  was  found  dead  of  disease,  old  age,  or  hunger.^  Ale  or 
beer  brewed  by  every  farmer  at  home  from  oats  and  heather — 
"  so  new  that  it  was  scarce  cold  when  brought  to  table,"  says 
Morer — was  their  chief  beverage,  with  fermented  whey  kept 
for  a  year  in  barrels  in  the  early  part  of  the  century.  Milk 
they  could  sparingly  use,  for  the  ill-thriven  cows  gave  only 
about  two  Scots  pints  a  day,  and  that  was  invariably  sour  by 
being  kept  in  foul  dishes.^  So  contemptuous  were  the  people 
of  cleanliness  that  it  was  considered  unlucky  to  wash  the 
kirns ;  they  were  so  given  up  to  superstition  that  sometimes  a 
frog  was  put  in  the  tubs  to  make  the  milk  churn ;  and  they 
were  so  full  of  experimental  wisdom  that  they  maintained  that 

^  See  CliurchiU's  Prophecy  of  Fanie  for  Southron  notion  of  nortliern  life  ; 
Gilray's  Caricatures  ;  The  North  Briton. 

"^  "In  Stirlingshire  even  oatmeal  was  a  luxury,  here  meal  heing  chiefly 
>ised.  In  time  of  scarcity  'gray  meal,'  a  compound  of  meal  and  mill  dust,  was 
resorted  to." — Ramsay's  Scot,  and  Scots,  ii.  202. 

3  Burt,  i.  143. 


i8o     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

the  consistency  of  the  butter  depended  on  the  number  of  hairs 
it  contained. 

Farmers  and  workers  were  much  about  the  same  rank  ;  and, 
indeed,  in  the  holdings  or  "  maihngs,"  the  most  of  the  work  was 
done  by  the  tenant's  family,  with  the  aid  of  two  or  three  men 
and  women  who  lived  with  them.  They  all  met  at  the  same 
board ;  sat  together  by  the  fireside  at  night,  when  the  women 
spun  the  flax  and  men  shod  their  brogues ;  and  partook  of  the 
same  food  out  of  the  same  dish,  which  was  rarely  cleaned.-^  Each 
man  had  his  horn  spoon,  which  he  kept  by  his  side  or  fastened 
in  his  bonnet,  to  "  sup  "  the  kail,  porridge,  or  sowans  ;  while  his 
fingers  and  teeth  did  duty  for  knife  and  fork  on  the  rare  occa- 
sions when  they  were  called  into  requisition  by  the  death  of 
"  crock  ewe  " — the  meat  being  cut  off  by  the  farmer  with  his 
clasp  knife.^  The  houses  inside  and  outside  were  filthy — the 
dirt  of  their  homes,  of  their  food,  and  their  persons,  did  not 
distress  them,  except  in  the  familiar  disease  which  too  often 
came  over  their  bodies. 

They  loved  this  state ;  it  kept  them  warm ;  it  saved  them 
trouble;  and  they  enshrined  their  tastes  in  their  sayings — "The 
mair  dirt  the  less  hurt,"  "The  clartier  the  cosier."^  The 
exposure  to  all  weathers  outside  and  to  peat  reek  within,  which 
filled  the  room  with  smoke  and  feathered  the  rafters  with  soot, 
made  their  skin  hard,  brown,  and  withered,  and  old-looking 
before  their  time.  The  dress  of  the  people  was  of  the  rudest 
and  roughest — the  women  having  coarse  home-made  drugget,  a 
matted  mixture  of  wool,  spun  as  it  came  in  natural  state  from 
the  sheep's  back — usually  no  gown,  but  a  short  woollen  petti- 
coat down  to  the  knees,  and  their  feet  were  destitute  of  shoes 
or  stockings."*     When  they  went  to  kirk  all  dressed  their  best : 

^  Stat.  Ace.  Scot.,  Craig,  Fortingall,  Tongland  ;  Pennant's  Tour  ;  Scots.  Mag. 
ii.  29  ;  Hist,  of  Gallotvay,  ii.  cliap.  v. 

^  In  those  days  knives  and  forks  formed  no  part  of  a  house  "  plenishing. " 
In  1754  not  three  farmers  had  half  a  dozen  knives  and  forks.  Stat.  Acct.  Scot., 
St.  Vigeans,  xii.  184  ;  Carlyle's  Autoliography,  p.  64. 

^  Another  saying  was,  "Muck  makes  luck."  "  If  the  butter  has  no  hair  in 
it  the  cow  will  not  thrive,"  was  a  convenient  belief. — Burt's  Letters,  i.  143. 

*  The  custom  of  going  barefooted  had  originated  the  apology  or  tradition 
tliat  "it  was  founded  upon  an  ancient  law,  that  no  males  should  wear  shoes  till 
they  were  14  years  of  age,  that  they  might  be  hardened  for  the  wars." — Morer's 
Short  Acct.  p.  14. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  i8i 

the  farmers'  wives  and  daughters  with  "  toys  "  or  head-covering 
of  coarse  Hnen,  and  a  tartan  or  red  plaid  covering  head  and 
shoulders.  On  Sundays  only  women  wore  their  shoes  ;  and  so 
unaccustomed  were  they  to  the  use  of  them,  they  seemed  to 
hobble  as  they  walked ;  so  they  usually  carried  them  in  their 
hands  till  they  came  within  sight  of  the  church,  when  they 
put  them  painfully  on.^  The  dress  of  the  men  was  equally 
rough  in  material  and  in  fashion.  Their  garments  in  daily 
work  were  in  rags ;  their  hose  were  pieces  of  plaiding  sewed 
together ;  their  shirts  were  of  coarse  woollen,  or  of  roughest 
harn  little  better  than  sacking,  which  got  no  washing  save 
from  the  rain  from  heaven.^  It  was  usually  the  practice  to 
change  these  latter  garments  at  the  terms  of  Martinmas  and 
Whitsunday,  or  at  most  thrice  a  year.  It  was  only  on  Sunday 
and  holidays,  or  during  frost  and  snow,  that  even  men  wore 
their  shoes,  preferring  to  go  barefoot.  Their  dress  on  holidays 
and  Sabbath,  and  burials  and  courting,  was  home-spun  suit 
of  friezed  cloth :  homely  enough,  but  yet  when  decked  with 
ribbons  and  bows  in  their  garters  and  bonnet,  the  ploughmen 
could  appear  in  smart  attire.^  The  dress  of  the  farmer  was 
very  little  different  to  his  men.  Only  the  laird  and  the 
minister  in  the  parish  possessed  a  hat,  while  he  wore  only  a 
bonnet ;  though  in  distinction  from  his  servants,  who  had  blue 
bonnets,  his  was  usually  black.  Thus  everything  was  poor, 
rough,  and  frugal.'* 

"With  the  bleak  and  barren  landscape  and  the  meagre  and 
shabby  living  of  the  people  their  dwellings  were  in  painful 
harmony.      In   17 02   Morer,  the  English  chaplain,  described 

^  Gent.  Mag.,  1766,  p.  211. 

The  lassies  skelpiii'  barefit 
In  silks  and  scarlet  glitter. 

Burns'  Holy  Fair. 
-  Hist,   of  Galloway,    ii.    chap.    v.  ;    Stat.  Ace.  Scot.,    Bathgate,    i.    365  ; 
Struthers'  Hist,  of  Scot.  ii.  625. 

^  In  tlie  old  ballads  and  songs  this  is  shown,  as  also  Ramsay's  Gentle 
Shepherd. 

*  We  may  take  the  following  as  a  fair  ^Inscription  of  the  diet  of  farmers  and 
their  servants  in  the  middle  of  tlie  century  ;  and  of  the  servants,  till  the  end  of 
the  century.  Breakfast — oatmeal  i)orridge  with  milk  or  ale,  or  broth  made  of 
cabbage  left  overnight,  and  oat  bannock.  Dinner — sowans,  with  milk  and  oat- 
cake or  kail.  Supj)er  at  7  during  winter,  or  9  in  summer — kail  (cabbage),  with 
oat-cakes. — F.  Douglas's  Description  of  East  Coast  of  Scotland,  \).  170. 


1 82      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

the  houses  of  the  vulgar  as  "low  and  feeble,  their  walls  made 
of  a  few  stones  jumbled  together  without  mortar  to  cement 
'em,  so  ordered  that  it  does  not  cost  much  more  time  to  erect 
such  a  cottage  than  to  pull  it  down,"  ^  without  chimneys,  and 
only  holes  in  the  turf-covered  roofs  for  smoke  to  pass.  This 
description  will  apply  to  the  homes  of  the  people  through  a 
great  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  hovels  of  one  room 
were  built  of  stones  and  turf,  without  mortar,  the  holes  in  the 
wall  stuffed  with  straw,  or  heather,  or  moss,  to  keep  out  the 
blasts ;  the  fire,  usually  in  the  middle  of  the  house  floor,  in 
despair  of  finding  an  exit  by  the  smoke-clotted  roof,  filled  the 
room  with  malodorous  clouds.^  The  cattle  at  night  were 
tethered  at  one  end  of  the  room,  while  the  family  lay  at  the 
other  on  heather  on  the  floor.  The  light  came  from  an  open- 
ing at  either  gable,  which,  whenever  the  wind  blew  in,  was 
stuffed  with  brackens  or  an  old  bonnet  to  keep  out  the  sleet 
and  blast.  The  roofs  were  so  low  in  northern  districts  that 
the  inmates  could  not  stand  upright,  but  sat  on  the  stones  or 
three-legged  stools  that  served  for  chairs,  and  the  huts  were 
entered  by  doors  ^  so  low  and  narrow  that  to  gain  an  entrance 
one  required  almost  to  creep.  Their  thatching  was  of  ferns 
and  heather,  for  the  straw  was  all  needed  for  the  cattle.  Yet, 
foul,  dark,  and  fetid  as  they  were,  the  people  liked  these  hovels 
for  their  warmth. 

The  houses  of  the  tenantry  were  very  little  better  in  most 
cases  than  those  of  their  ploughmen  and  herds,  from  whom  the 
farmer  differed  little  in  dress,  manners,  or  rank.*  Even  in 
Ayrshire,  till  long  after  the  middle  of  the  century,  they  were 
little  removed  from  hovels  with  clay  floors,  open  hearths,  some- 
times in  the  middle  of  the  room,  with  walls  seven  feet  high, 

^  Morer's  Short  Acd.  p.  19. 

^  Stat.  Acd.  Scot.,  Tongland  ;  Hist,  of  Galloivay,  ii.  ch.  v  ;  Ure's  Dumbarton- 
shire, p.  34  ;  Stat.  Acd.  Scot.,  Symington,  v.  397. 

*  Heron's  Journey  through  West.  Counties. 

*  Fullarton's  Stirvetj  of  Ayr-shire.     It  was  such  a  dwelling  as  Burns  in  the 
Vision  "  describes — 

There  lonely  by  the  ingle  cheek 
I  sat  and  ey'd  the  spewint;  reek 
That  tilled  wi'  hoast-provokiu"  smeek 

The  auld  clay  biggin', 
An'  heard  the  restless  rattons  squeak 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  183 

yet  three  feet  thick,  built  of  stones  and  mud.  Only  the  better 
class  of  farmers  had  two  rooms,  the  house  getting  scanty  light 
by  two  tiny  windows,  the  upper  part  only  glazed  with  two 
panes  of  bottle  glass.  It  had  been  the  practice  in  former 
times — but  dying  out  in  the  early  part  of  the  century — for 
the  outgoing  tenant  to  remove  from  the  farmhouse  all  the 
beams  and  rafters  which  he  himself  had  put  in ;  and  conse- 
quently his  successor  came  not  to  a  home,  but  to  a  ruin 
consisting  of  four  broken  walls,  and  had  to  virtually  rebuild 
the  house,  which  he  in  turn  dismantled  when  it  became  his 
turn  to  leave.  In  these  dismal,  ill-lighted  abodes  when  night 
set  in  the  fitful  flare  of  the  peat  fire  was  all  the  light  they  had, 
for  the  "  ruffies,"  or  split  roots  of  fir  found  in  the  peat  moss, 
were  only  lit  for  set  purposes,  such  as  family-worship.^ 

A  remarkable  proof  of  the  stagnation  of  trade  and  the 
total  absence  of  all  enterprise  and  industrial  progress  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  the  rent  of  land,  the  price  of  grain  and 
of  articles  of  food  and  clothing,  the  wages  of  men,  remained 
almost  stationary  during  the  hundred  years  between  1640 
and  1740.  The  earnings  of  farm  servants  varied  considerably  ; 
but  if  we  may  take  Stirlingshire  as  affording  a  fair  average  in 
1730,  the  best  ploughman  living  with  the  farmer  had  35s.  a 
year,  with  a  few  "  gains  "  or  "  bounties  " — consisting  of  a  pair 
of  shoes,  coarse  linen  or  harn  for  a  shirt,  and  one  or  two  yards 
of  plaiding ;  female  servants  had  13s.  4d.  in  money,  with  an 
apron  and  a  pair  of  shoes.  In  1760,  money  and  bounties 
taken  together,  the  earnings  of  men  in  the  house  amounted 
to  £3,  those  of  the  women  to  20s. ;  while  married  ploughmen 
had  wages  worth  from  £7  to  £8 — only  £3  or  £4,  however, 
were  paid  in  money,  the  rest  being  in  kind.  Yet  small  as 
were  their  earnings,  with  tastes  simple  and  habits  frugal, 
there  was  little  discontent  and  discomfort  in  their  lot,  for 
these  times  contrasted  pleasantly  with  their  younger  and 
poorer  days." 

1  Court  Book  of  Barony  of  Uric,  1604-1747  ;  Scot.  Hist.  Society.— Court  of 
Barony,  1705,  ordains  "that  no  tenant  or  cottar  removing  from  their  respective 
farms  shall  pull  down  any  of  their  liouse  walls  more  than  free  their  timber." — 
P.  47. 

2  Ramsay's  Scot,  and  Scots,  ii.  211.  Ploughmen  in  1735  had  ^£8  Scots  = 
13s.  4d.,  and  bounties  of  clothings  lis.  6d.      In   1740  he  had  32s.      Female 


i84     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

If  the  condition  of  the  Lowlands  was  deplorable,  the  state 
of  the  North  was  grievously  worse.  Crofters  hired  their  little 
patch  of  ground  from  the  tacksman,  or  lease-holder,  of  the 
laird  or  chief,  which  gave  him  space  only  where  he  could  sow 
a  boll  of  oats,  often  in  places  where  it  was  impossible  for  a 
plough  to  go  owing  to  the  rocks,  moss,  and  heather,  and  where 
the  soil  could  only  be  dug  by  the  triangular  spade  of  the 
people — and  for  this  privilege  vexatious  services  were  exacted 
of  them.  On  the  proceeds  of  this,  with  the  aid  of  a  cow  or 
two,  a  household  subsisted.^  To  occupy  the  families  that 
swarmed  in  Highland  glens  and  islands  there  was  not  sufficient 
work  or  food,  and  even  by  the  sea  those  who  were  fishers  were 
too  lazy  to  pursue  their  occupation,  except  when  driven  to  it 
by  necessity,  and  there  was  no  trade  or  market  in  remote 
regions  by  which  they  could  barter  their  fish  for  clothes  or 
more  palatable  food.  They  loitered  through  their  summers 
and  idled  out  the  winters  in  congenial  inactivity,  scorching 
their  feet  at  the  peat  fires  round  which  their  toes  in  circle 
converged  as  they  lay  on  the  floor. 

Even  farther  south,  in  Perthshire  and  Stirlingshire,  tacks- 
men would  subdivide  a  piece  of  ground,  only  enough  to  give 
work  for  one  man  and  four  horses  or  oxen,  into  patches  of 
poor  soil  for  sixteen  families  to  occupy  at  about  12s.  a  year 
rent.2     In  such  conditions  there  was  a  stagnation  of  all  energy, 

servants  in  1735  had  3s.  4d.  wages,  with  6s.  or  7s.  in  bounties.  A  few  years 
later  they  had  15s.  in  money. — Stat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Caputh,  iv.  495.  There  are  now 
(1793)  living  in  the  parish  two  old  men  who  in  their  younger  days  were  servants, 
one  at  20s.  and  the  other  at  30s.  a  year.  Now  it  is  from  £4  to  £6,  with  enter- 
tainment, better  than  the  tenant  could  afford. — Stat.  Ace,  Birse,  ix.  114. 

^  A  writer  later  in  the  century  gives  a  description  of  the  state  of  matters 
which  is  equally  applicable  to  this  period  :  "Neglected  by  Government,  forsaken 
or  oppressed  by  the  gentry,  cut  off  during  most  of  the  year  by  impassable 
mountains  and  impracticable  navigation  from  the  seats  of  commerce,  industry, 
and  plenty,  living  at  considerable  distances  from  human  aid,  without  the 
necessaries  of  life,  and  depending  most  generally  for  the  bare  means  of  subsistence 
on  the  precarious  appearance  of  a  vessel  freighted  with  meal  or  potatoes,  to  which 
they  in  eagerness  resort  though  at  a  distance  of  fifty  miles.  Upon  the  whole,  the 
Highlands,  some  few  estates  excepted,  are  the  seats  of  oppression,  poverty, 
famine,  and  wild  despair." — Knox's  British  Empire,  i.  128. 

-  MS.  of  Graham  of  Gartmore,  1747,  in  Burt's  Letters,  Append,  ii.  343.  In 
Buchanan  parish,  Stirlingshire,  and  elsewhere,  "150  families  may  live  on  ground 
paying  £80  a  year." 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  185 

a  hopelessness  of  all  betterment  of  life,  a  docile  resignation 
to,  if  not  contentment  with,  a  poor  and  squalid  lot. 

In  these  homes  there  came  disease  in  the  forms  that  ill  odours, 
ill  ventilation,  and  dirt  engender — especially  that  cutaneous 
trouble  which  was  associated  with  the  Scots  to  their  discredit. 
Infectious  diseases  were  propagated  readily,  owing  to  the 
common  fatalism  of  the  pious-mooded  people,  who  held  that 
everything  is  ordained  of  God,  and  that  if  a  thing  did  happen 
it  was  "  bound  to  be."  ^  So  in  sick  huts  the  neighbours 
assembled  on  Sundays  in  their  interest  and  curiosity,  till  the 
hovel  was  full  of  sympathy  and  foul  air.  The  patient  was 
stifled  by  heat,  and  the  friends  bore  away  the  seeds  of  disease. 
Small-pox  ravaged  at  times,  and  was  spread  by  the  people,  who 
filled  the  small  rooms  in  pious  belief  that  no  one  could  hasten 
or  hinder  a  death.  Amongst  this  people,  inured  to  hard 
life,  rheumatism  was  a  constant  complaint,  arising  from  the 
moist  air  and  incessant  exposure,  with  wet  soil  outside  and 
wet  clothing  kept  on  inside  the  homes.  The  one  ailment  to 
which  they  were  most  liable,  and  in  which  dirt  had  no  share, 
was  ague.^  This  was  due  to  the  undrained  land,  which  retained 
wet  like  a  sponge,  and  was  full  of  swamps,  and  bogs,  and 
morasses  in  which  "green  grew  the  rushes."  Terribly  pre- 
valent and  harassing  this  malady  proved  to  the  rural  classes, 
for  every  year  a  vast  proportion  of  the  people  were  prostrated 
by  it,  so  that  it  was  often  extremely  difficult  to  get  the 
necessary  work  of  the  fields  performed  in  many  districts.  In 
localities  like  the  Carse  of  Gowrie,  which  in  those  days 
abounded  in  morasses  and  deep  pools,  amongst  whose  rushes 
the  lapwings  had  their  haunt,  the  whole  popvilation  was  every 
year  stricken  more  or  less  with  the  trouble,  until  the  days 
came  when  drainage  dried  the  soil  and  ague  and  lapwings 
disappeared. 

^  HIM.  Acd.,  Kilfinan,  xiv.  235  ;  Kirkcaldy,  xviii.  7  ;  Diimliarton,  iv.  72. 
The  last  writer,  evidently  a  "moderate,"  attributes  spread  of  disease,  especially 
small-pox,  to  crowded  houses  and  "an  over-anxiety  for  constant  prayer  over  the 
diseased."     Only  6000  persons  were  inoculated  in  1765. 

^  Stat.  Acd.  Scot.,  Ayton,  xi.  81  ;  Cramond,  i.  325  ;  Kirkden,  ii.  508  ; 
Donaldson's  Agric.  of  Carse  of  Gowrie,  p.  11. 


1 86     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 


VII 

In  such  squalid  conditions  of  living  there  was  little  to 
elevate  the  tone  of  rural  society,  and  if  amongst  the  peasantry 
tastes  were  coarse,  amusements  rough,  and  manners  rude,  there 
is  little  cause  for  wonder  or  for  blame  in  people  existing  in 
such  sordid  surroundings  and  in  such  hovels  in  such  wretched 
contiguity.  Enjoyments  they  had — at  their  Pastern's  E'en, 
their  Hallowmas,  their  Fairs,  and  their  Sacraments — those 
Holy  Fairs  associated  with  scarcely  less  excitement.  In  the 
south  country  they  had  their  gatherings  in  the  evening,^  when, 
with  music,  singing,  and  dancing,  they  also  enacted  the  story  of 
some  old  song,  little  dramas,  not  too  refined,  in  which  they 
showed  what  rustic  skill  and  rude  humour  they  could.  On 
moonlight  nights  they  held  their  favourite  meetings  in  barn  or 
cottage,  called  "  Eockings,"  ^  when  young  women  brought 
their  "  rocks  and  reels,"  or  distaff  and  spindles — where  young 
men  assembled,  and  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  spinning  of 
the  wool  and  flax  the  song  and  merriment  went  round,  till  the 
company  dispersed,  and  girls  went  home  escorted  by  their 
swains,  who  carried  gallantly  their  rocks  over  corn-rigs  and 
moor.  When  "  rocks  "  were  no  more  used,  and  spinning-wheels 
had  taken  their  place,  still  by  the  familiar  name  of  "  rockings  " 
were  these  merry  social  meetings  called.^ 

All  great  domestic  events  were  accompanied  by  roystering 
and  drinking — at  a  christening  there  was  much,  at  a  funeral 
there  was  more,  at  a  wedding  there  was  most.  Boisterous 
mirth  and  play  attended  every  stage  of  bridal  preparations — the 
foot- washing  of  the  bride,  the  humours  of  the  feast,  the  dances 
at  the  wedding,  and  what  not.  The  gayest  were  the  "  Penny 
Bridals,"  for  which  each  neighbour  contributed  in  olden  times 

^  Allan  Cunningham's  Songs  of  Scotland,  i.  ;  Cromek's  Bemmns  of  Nithsdale 
Song,  p.  122— such  as  "Waste  and  Thrift,"  or  the  song  called  "The  Rock  and 
wee  pickle  Tow,"  played  at  kirns,  "Wooing  the  Maiden,"  at  close  of  wedding 
feasts,  and  "  Auld  Glenae." 

2  Rock  and  reel  were  going  out  about  1730  in  the  Lowlands,  and  had  dis- 
appeared by  1740. — Henderson's  Annals  of  Dunfermline. 
^  At  Fastern's  e'en  we  had  a  rockin', 
To  ca'  the  crack  an'  weave  our  stockin'. 

Burns'  Epistle  to  Lapraik. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  187 

one  penny  Scots,  but  now  gave  meal,  or  fowls,  or  ale  to 
plenish  the  feast  of  every  impecunious  couple.  The  Church 
lifted  up  its  voice  and  laid  down  its  laws  ^  against  these 
weddings,  which  they  abhorred  as  occasions  of  drunkenness, 
profanity,  and  sensuality — especially  in  "  promiscuous  dancing 
of  men  with  women."  However  the  Kirk  might  threaten 
and  punish,  the  people  danced  defiantly ;  for  to  dance 
"  promisky,"  ■"'  as  they  called  it,  was  their  one  great  delight, 
and  lairds  and  farmers  sent  money  and  food  and  drink  to 
supply  the  festival.  That  these  scenes  were  often  wild  and 
indecorous  was  certainly  the  case ;  and  so  far  the  clergy  had 
reason  to  condemn  them.  But,  unfortunately,  the  Church 
placed  its  embargo  on  all  pleasures  alike ;  put  in  the  category 
of  moral  offences  the  harmless  exuberances  of  youth  and  the 
gross  offences  of  manhood  and  womanhood,  with  no  sense  of 
proportion — in  fact,  with  no  sense  whatever.  In  consequence, 
the  peasantry,  despising  foolish  ecclesiastical  rebukes  on  their 
harmless  pleasures,  got  to  respect  quite  as  little  the  wisest 
restraints  on  their  sins.^ 

People's  songs  reflect  the  people's  mind  and  picture  the 
people's  life ;  many  of  these  folk-songs  have  long  ago  dis- 
appeared :  some  because  they  were  poor,  many  because  they 
were  utterly  gross — so  different  from  the  fine  old  ballads — 
and  only  the  airs,  harmless  and  pretty,  lived  on.  Of  the  songs 
that  do  survive  in  their  original  form  it  may  be  said  there  is 
a  charm  of  simplicity  and  plaintive  sweetness  in  some,  a  rich 
shrewd  humour,  a  lilting  audacity  in  others ;  but  too  many 
are  of  the  eartli,  earthy :  there  is  the  mean  bargaining  over 
tochers,  and  sordid   offers   of  gear  as   stages   of  the   uncouth 

^  General  Assembly,  1645,  1701,  1706,  1719  ;  Presbytery  records,  ^^assm. 

'^  Hall's  Travels  in  Scotland,  i.  203. 

^  One  of  the  favourite  little  rustic  plays  was  "  Auld  Glenae," 

"  Poor  auld  Glenae,  what  ails  the  Kirk  at  thee?" 

where  tlie  inquisitorial  severity  of  tlie  Kirk  was  ridiculed  with  gross  allusions  and 
l)roadest  luuuour,  tlie  company  enacting  the  familiar  scenes  in  Kirk  and  Session — 
the  solemn  admonitions  from  the  pulpit,  the  mock  simplicity  of  the  transgressor 
at  the  pillar — all  this  to  the  miMrimoiit  ot  old  and  young,  child  and  motlier. — 
Cromek's  Keiiiains,  122  ;  A.  Cunningham's  Smujs  of  Srot.,  i.  148.  See  Herd's 
Collection  of  Songs  for  more  accurate  and  less  bowdlerised  versions  of  favourite 
lyrics. 


1 88      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

wooing ;  there  is  coarse  plainness  of  speech,  and  sly  innuendoes 
which  are  worse.  In  1724  Allan  Eamsay,  when  he  began  to 
issue  his  Tea  Table  Miscellany,  altered  popular  songs — spoiling 
some,  improving  others  to  make  them  fit  for  decent  society — - 
not  too  successfully.  It  was  left  for  Robert  Burns  to  rescue 
many  fine  tunes  from  oblivion,  as  they  lingered  on  the  ears  of 
a  few  peasants  who  remembered  only  snatches  of  the  songs  to 
which  they  had  been  set ;  and  to  meet  the  requirements  of  his 
decorous  editors  to  change  wanton  words  to  others  of  purer 
strain,  to  compose  new  verses  to  suit  those  old  melodies  which, 
bereft  of  the  ancient  songs  to  which  they  had  been  wedded, 
were  waiting  for  a  new  song  to  sing.^  Thereafter  the  grosser 
versions  went  out  of  use  and  favour,  and  the  fresh  versions 
won  a  place  in  the  affections  of  a  more  modest  generation. 

The  literature  of  the  people  in  the  early  part  of  the 
century  was  very  restricted.  In  a  shelf  in  the  cottage  might 
lie  a  Bible,  a  Confession  of  Faith,  a  well-thumbed,  peat-smoked 
volume  of  Ptutherford's  Letters,  which  were  read  on  the  Sabbath 
day  to  the  interest  of  the  old  and  the  yawns  of  the  young. 
The  travelling  packman  every  now  and  then  came,  and  amidst 
the  miscellaneous  contents  of  his  wallet  were  chapbooks : 
The  Prophecies  of  Peden,  Life  of  Sir  William  Wallace,  the 
Ravishing  dying  Words  of  Christina  Ker,  who  died  at  the  age 
of  7,  and  songs  and  ballads,  some  as  broad  as  they  were  long. 
In  some  districts  the  sight  of  Patrick  Walker  on  his  white 
pony  about  1720  was  a  delight  to  sedate  and  serious-minded 
people,  who  listened  to  the  pious  covenanting  pedlar  as  he 
denounced  the  growing  ungodliness  of  the  age.  But  this  was 
dull  to  younger  folk,  who  loved  songs  and  stories  which  would 
have  made  the  grim  Covenanter  sadder  still. 

It  was  not  till  about  1750  that  a  popular  and  vernacular 
literature  was  concocted,  more  congenial  to  the  tastes  and 
habits  of  the  rural  population  than  History  of  Robin  Hood. 
This  was  the  work  of  a  pedlar  very  different  from  the  long 

^  Many  a  well-known  song  has  gone  through  the  purifying  ordeal  at  the 
hands  of  Ramsay  and  his  friends,  or  of  Burns:  "Duncan  Gray,"  "Coming 
thro'  the  rye,"  "Get  up  and  bar  the  door,"  "  i\Iy  love  she's  but  a  lassie  yet," 
"  O  niither  dear  I  gin  to  fear,"  etc.  etc. ;  Cunningham's  Songs  of  Scot.,  4  vols. 
1819;  Chambers'  Scottish  Smujs ;  Johnson's  Musical  Museum;  Stenhouse's 
Illustrations  of  Lyric  Poetry  and  Music  of  Scot. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  189 

deceased  Walker,  composer  and  hawker  of  pious  chapbooks  of 
their  fathers.     Dugald  Graham  was  a  familiar  personage  in 
Glasgow  streets  up  to  1780  as  bellman  of  the  city — a  strange, 
grotesque,  dwarfish  figure,  with  humpback,  pigeon-breast,  and 
punch-like  nose,  limping   up    the   Trongate,  resplendent   in  a 
long  scarlet  cloak,  blue  breeches,  and  cocked  hat.^      Ere  he  had 
been  installed  in  this  important  office  of  "  skellat  bellman  "  he 
had  travelled  as  "  flying  stationer,"  or  "  travelling  merchant," 
through  the  countryside,  and  sold  chapbooks  which   he   had 
himself  written   and   printed   about    1754.       These    quickly 
became  the  favourite  reading  of  the  peasantry  :  Jolin  Chea^p  the 
Chapmaii,  Lothian   Tom,  Leper  the   Tailor,  Jocky  and  Maggie's 
Courtship,  and  others,  were  sold  in  every  village  and  farm,  and 
were  the  delight  of  every  ploughman.      As  the  little  deformed 
man  came  ambling  on  his  pony,  crowds  collected  to  buy  his 
wares,  to   laugh   at   his   broad  jokes  and  stories,  given   with 
Eabelaisian  unction  by  the  leering  cripple.      The   chapbooks 
are   full   of  coarse,   dramatic   vigour,  of  gross   humour   in   a 
dialogue  of  vulgarest  Scots.     Animal  they  are ;  often  unclean 
in  the  utter  plainness  of  speech  with  which  they  depict  the 
common  incidents  of  rustic  life.      Yet  they  are  valuable  from 
their  portraiture  with  rare  fidelity  of  the  tone,  speech,  talk, 
habits,  morals,  and  immorals  of  the  people.      In  the  style  with 
which  this  Boccaccio  of  the  byre  told  his  comic  stories,  the  finer 
side  of  peasant  character  is  not  to  be  found — the  love  scenes 
have  no  romance,  the  religious  references  have  no  reverence, 
the  idyllic  beauty  and  simplicity  of  country  life  are  not  there. 
But  in  them  is  painted  with  cynical  truth  how  peasants  spoke,, 
how  they  drank,  how  they  courted,  how  they  wedded,  and  how 
they  forgot  to  wed ;  their  rude  mirth,  their  gross  pleasures ; 
how  little  they  respected  the  menaces  of  the  Kirk-Session,  how 
disrespectfully    they    spoke    of    "  Mess    John "    the    minister 
behind  his  back ;  how  lightly  they  regarded  uncleanness   in 
thought,  speech,  and  behaviour. 

It  is  true  that  Dugald  Graham  was  as  unable  to  appreciate 
and  to  describe  the  purer  and  higher  aspects  of  Scots  life  as  he 

^  Collected  Writings  of  Dugald  Graham,  Skellat  Bellman  of  Glasgow,  edit, 
by  George  Macgregor,  2  vols.  1883;  Strang's  Cluhs  of  Glasgow;  Fraser's 
Humorous  Chapbooks  of  Scotland. 


igo     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

was  to  rise  to  the  dignity  of  history  when  he  composed  his 
doggerel  story  of  the  Eebellion,  and  he  wrote  in  the  loosest 
vein  to  please  the  looser  sort.  But  that  the  prevalent  tone  of 
the  peasantry  was  low,  in  spite  of  the  deep  piety  of  great 
masses  of  the  people,  who  had  a  fine  strain  of  religious 
sentiment  in  their  nature,  and  stanch,  hardy  righteousness  in 
their  lives,  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  alacrity  with  which 
such  stories  were  read,  and  by  the  innumerable  editions  in 
rudest  type  and  shape  in  which  they  were  issued,  regardlessly 
of  all  copyright,  to  delight  groups  at  cottage  firesides  and 
stackyards.  Session  records  of  the  past  present  the  same  gide 
of  society.  They  prove  that  the  Church  had  driven  the  vices 
under,  but  had  failed  to  drive  them  out.  These  old  chapbooks 
long  retained  their  popularity  with  tlie  poorer  sorts.  Songs 
and  ballads  in  rough  broadsides,  humorous,  pathetic,  amorous, 
and  pious ;  heroic  stories  with  the  crudest  of  woodcuts,  tracts 
and  discourses  in  deplorable  type,  which  the  packman  carried 
in  his  wallet,  formed  the  favourite  reading  for  people  of  all 
tastes  and  temperaments.  It  is  said  that  200,000  copies 
of  these  chapbooks  were  issued  yearly  by  petty  booksellers 
about  1770.^ 

One  of  the  all-pervading  influences  over  the  minds  of  the 
peasantry  were  superstitions.  These  grew  up  side  by  side 
with  the  most  austere  behef  of  orthodox  religion,  like  flowers 
and  weeds  springing  in  an  ill-kept  garden.  Each  was  held 
with  equal  tenacity  in  the  same  mind,  unconscious  of  any 
incongruity.  Trust  in  charms,  omens,  incantations,  were  rife 
amongst  them  all.  Every  incident  of  daily  life — a  baptism, 
a  death,  the  illness  of  a  cow,  the  churning  of  milk,  the  setting 
forth  on  a  journey — each  was  associated  with  some  mysterious 
sign  which  foretold  it,  or  some  strange  rite  which  infallibly 
caused  or  hindered  it.  Those  notions  and  those  practices 
were  guarded  from  the  eye  of  the  Kirk,  and  were  kept  as 
furtively  as  the  teraphim  by  ancient  Jews,  who  worshipped 
them  in  private  and  adored  Jehovah  in  public.  Most  deeply 
rooted   were    superstitions   among    the    peasantry   in    remote 

^  Fraser's  Humorous  Chapbooks  of  Scotland,  p.  114.  Later  in  the  century 
the  coarsest  of  these  had  wide  circulation  in  the  North  of  England,  esi)ecially 
in  the  industrial  centres. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  191 

districts  separated  by  moor,  and  hill,  and  loch,  from  contact 
with  towns — regions  where  schoolmasters  were  scarce  and 
kirks  were  powerless.  They  were  wide-spread  in  scattered 
tracts  of  Galloway,  and  abounded  with  wild  luxuriancy  in  the 
Highlands,  where  Celtic  imagination  ran  riot  and  peopled  the 
air  and  earth  with  spirits,  and  life  with  omens.  But  in  fact 
there  was  no  place  where  they  were  not  prevalent  in  the 
early  half  of  the  century,  and  few  places  where  they  did  not 
linger  when  the  century  had  closed.  Side  by  side  with  belief 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  was  the  respect  for 
notions  whose  sources  were  pagan,  or  popish,  or  satanic. 
There  was  belief  in  the  virtues  of  lakes  and  wells,  which  were 
due  to  heathen  deity,  or  saint,  or  devil — equal  aversions  of  the 
Church.  To  the  Doo  loch,  in  Covenanting  Nithsdale,^  the 
people  had  gone,  in  spite  of  Presbytery,  to  sprinkle  their 
cripples  and  palsied  in  the  water,  leaving  votive  offerings  of 
rags  and  bits  of  bread  as  their  popish  ancestors  had  done,  in 
gratitude  for  the  unknown  patron  who  wrought  the  cure. 
But  chiefly  in  the  northern  districts  were  the  pilgrimages 
to  lakes  and  wells  of  saints,  and  to  their  ruined  chapels,  to 
exorcise  the  epilepsy  from  their  sick.^  At  Killin,  in  St. 
Fillan's  well ;  to  Loch  Maree,  where  they  invoked  the  "  God 
Mairie,"  Treval's  loch  in  Orkney,  and  St.  Eres  in  Sutherland, 
and  many  another  shrine  and  lake,  the  inhabitants  repaired 
up  to  the  present  century,  and  decked  the  trees  and  bushes 
on  the  brink  with  grateful  rags  of  tartan,  ribbons,  and  oat 
cakes.^  Old  pagan  beliefs  lay  side  by  side  in  peasant  minds 
with  those  of  Calvin.  Beyond  the  Tay  they  had  their  Beltane 
fires — when  on  the  first  of  May  (Old  Style)  they  lit  the  fire  of 
turf,  danced  round  the  flames,  and  spilt  a  libation  of  caudle  on 
the  ground ;  they  took  their  oat  cake,  having  on  it  quaint  knobs, 
which  they  flung  in  turn  over  their  shoulder,  saying,  "  This  to 
thee,  protect  my  cattle,"  "  This  to  thee,  0  fox,  spare  my  sheep," 
"  This  to  thee,  0  eagle ;  this  to  thee,  0  hooded  crow,  save  my 

^  Penpont  Preshytcry  Record,  1695. 

-  At  the  end  of  tlie  century  this  was  still  constantly  done.  Pennant's  Tour, 
i.  159  ;  Edmonston's  Shetland,  ii.  74. 

3  Stat.  Acct.,  Wick,  x.  15  ;  Logierait,  Killin  ;  Brand's  Orkney,  p.  42  ; 
Mitchell's  Past  in  the  Present,  143. 


192      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

lambs."  ^     Next  day,  prol3ably,  these  idolaters  were  sitting  in 
their  pews  in  orthodoxy  most  demure. 

Superstition  attended  every  action  from  birth  to  death. 
When  the  child  was  born,  whether  in  Galloway  or  the 
Hebrides,  there  was  felt  a  risk  of  its  being  taken  off  during 
sleep  by  fairies,"^  who  might  leave  a  changeling  in  its  stead. 
Friends,  therefore,  watched  all  night ;  and  making  a  circle 
round  the  bed,  they  took  the  "  Book "  in  their  hands,  and 
waving  the  sacred  leaves  bade  all  foes  begone  to  the  Eed 
Sea.  Not  till  the  christening  was  over  was  peril  past  from  fairy 
or  from  witch,  and  all  visitors,  lest  they  should  chance  to  have 
the  evil  eye,  were  presented  with  a  piece  of  bread  to 
propitiate  any  hostile  purpose.  In  most  districts  when 
friends  met  they  were  careful  to  salute  with  a  kiss  to  prevent 
"  fore-speaking " ;  and  nothing  they  dreaded  more  than  that 
their  children,  or  goods,  or  cattle  should  be  praised  unless  to 
the  praise  was  added  the  phrase,  "  God  bless  the  bairn,"  "  Luck 
fare  the  beast."  ^  If  a  cow  should  fall  ill,  it  would  be 
remembered  that  their  neighbour  who  called  yesterday  had 
praised  the  animal,  but  had  not  added,  "  I  wish  her  good 
luck,"  and  ill  intent  was  at  once  suspected.  The  possession 
of  the  evil  eye  did  not  always  imply  malice :  it  might  happen 
that  a  poor  man  had  the  fatal  gift  which  cursed  his  own 
fortunes — his  cattle  died,  his  cow  failed  of  milk,  his  stacks 
heated  in  the  yards.*  It  was  all  because  he  had  the  "  uncanny 
eye,"  and  he  would  avert  his  gaze  as  the  milk  was  carried  from 
the  byre  lest  he  should  turn  it  sour,  would  close  his  eyes  as  he 
passed  the  lambs,  and  hardly  look  a  neighbour  in  the  face.  This 
reputation  of  an  uncanny  eye,  however,  was  a  source  of  profit  to 
others.  Old  hags  who  owned  it — when  witchcraft  brought  no 
penalty — got  presents  of  clothing  and  food,  and  their  peat  was 
"cast"  most  obligingly  to  win  their  favour  or  dispel  their  spleen. 

^  Pennant's  Tour,  i.  111.  ;  Stat.  Acct.,  Logierait,  v.  82  ;  Stewart's  Sketches 
of  Highlands. 

-  Still  believed  in  among  the  Hebrides,  vol.  iv.  251,  Proceedings  Scot. 
Society  of  Antiquaries  ;  Cromek's  Re7nains,  p.  293  ;  Grant's  Superstitions  of 
Highlanders,  i.  168. 

*  Gregor's  Folk- Lore ;  Stat.  Acct.,  Forglen,  xiv.  541;  Gargunnock,  xviii.. 
123  ;  Mrs.  Grant's  Superstitions  of  the  Highlanders. 

*  Cromek's  Remains,  p.  289. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  193 

Long  after  witchcraft  as  a  crime  was  abolished  from  the 
statute  book  it  was  maintained  as  a  belief;  but  the  supposed 
witch  was  no  longer  burned — she  was  obsequiously  caressed ; 
to  gain  security  from  her  malice  and  to  gain  help  from  her 
arts,  she  was  constantly  getting  a  dish  of  groats,  a  supply  of 
peat  or  thatch  for  her  hovel  whenever  she  wanted.  Some- 
times, however,  the  caresses  to  secure  her  favour  turned  to 
rage  when  they  felt  her  curse,  and  seizing  the  old  creature 
they  "  scored  "  her,  drawing  blood  above  the  eyebrows  with  a 
cut  in  the  form  of  a  cross.^  "  Scoring  the  witch "  proved  a 
perfect  safeguard  from  her  malignant  spells.  Firmly  was  it 
credited  when  Hallowmas  came  that  the  "  Hallowmas  rades  " 
began,  when  the  local  hags  gathered  for  midnight  revelry,  and 
in  Dumfriesshire  ^  met  in  silent,  ruined  precincts  of  Caerlaverock 
Castle  or  Sweetheart  Abbey.  By  their  peat  fires  at  night  old 
peasants  told  how  the  old  kimmers  had  set  forth  on  their 
eldrich  journey — on  nights  when  the  wind  laid  flat  their  crops 
and  unroofed  their  huts — sitting  on  a  shank-bone,  shod  with 
bones  of  a  murdered  man,  with  bridle  made  of  the  skin  of  an 
unchristened  babe.  In  Nithsdale  only  bold  men  doubted  that 
in  Lochbrigg  hill,  near  Dumfries,  they  held  assembly,  as  the 
"  Witches  Gathering  "  song  records :  ^ — 

When  the  howlet  has  three  times  hoo'ed, 
When  the  gray  cat  has  three  times  mewed, 
When  the  tod  has  yowled  three  times  i'  the  wood, 
At  the  red  moon  cowering  ahint  the  cloud. 
When  the  stars  hae  cruppen  deep  in  the  rift 
Lest  cantrips  had  pyked  them  out  of  the  lift ; 
Up  horses  a',  Ijut  [without]  mair  adowe, 
Ride,  ride  for  Locher  brig  kuowe. 

Even  up  to  the  next  century,  boys,  as  they  passed  the  hut 
of  some  old  woman  whom  people  eyed  askance,  put  the  thumb 
upon  the  palm  of  the  hand  and  closed  their  fingers  over  it — a 
reHc  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  to  avert  the  evil  eye. 

It  was  long  ere  the  belief  in  fairies  passed  from  a  conviction 
to  mere  "  fairy  tales."  People  implicitly  believed  in  these  folk 
with  golden  locks  and  green  mantles,  with  quivers  of  arrows 

^  Somerville's  Ovni  Life,  p.  366  ;  Pennant's  Tour. 
"^  Croniek's  liemains,  p.  289, 
'^  Cromek's  liemains  of  Nithsdale  and  Galloway  Sony,  p.  286. 
VOL.  I  13 


194     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

made  of  bones  of  a  man  buried  where  three  lairds'  lands  meet, 
tipped  with  white  field  flints  or  elf-stones  dipped  in  dew  of 
hemlock,  that  slew  the  cattle  as  they  passed.  Folk  thought 
they  heard  the  hubbub  of  the  fairy  voices  on  the  first  night  of 
summer,  while  the  breeze  was  rising  and  sighing  through  the 
firs.  There  were  haunts  of  fairies  and  brownies  which  they 
feared  to  tread  beside  ancient  thorn-trees.  But  at  last  that 
ground  was  ploughed  as  agriculture  spread ;  and  Good-man's 
Crofts  became  farmers'  acres,  and  corn  grew  on  knolls  where 
elves  had  held  their  trysts :  then  fairies  vanished  from  the 
land.^  Beliefs  pass  on  to  half-beliefs  and  thence  to  myths ; 
and  it  is  difficult  to  know  when  a  faith  has  passed  into  a 
fancy.  The  pious  rites  of  one  age  become  the  pastimes  of 
another,  and  an  old  superstitious  practice  in  time  becomes  a 
childish  game.  Even  Hallowmas  gradually  lost,  save  for 
children,  its  devout  superstition,  till  no  longer  folk  believed 
the  ancient  rhyme  that  at  Halloween  "  all  the  witches  were 
to  be  seen."  But  other  superstitions  remained  deep-rooted — 
belief  in  charms  and  omens  innumerable.  No  farmer  would 
omit  to  place  the  branch  of  rowan  or  elder  tree,  of  ash  or  ivy, 
on  the  byre  door  to  ward  the  cattle  from  blight  or  witchcraft ; 
or  forget  to  place  on  the  stable  door — usually  on  the  2nd  of 
May — the  elf  cups,  the  fancied  weapons  of  fairies,  but  prosaically 
stones  perforated  by  friction  at  a  waterfall."  Most  of  all  was 
death  with  its  mystery  accompanied  by  luxuriant  superstitions. 
The  moment  the  spirit  left  the  body  the  nearest  of  kin  received 
the  breath;^  the  windows  and  door  were  opened  as  if  to  let  the 
soul  get  free ;  on  the  breast  of  the  dead  the  plate  of  salt  was 
placed  lest  the  body  swell  and  burst  the  bands  with  which 
it  was  swathed.  The  lyke  wake  followed,  when  friends 
watched  the  body  to  keep  evil  spirits  away,  and  caroused  to 
keep  their  own  spirits  up.     In  the  Highlands,'*  to  show  their 

^  As  the  adage  said — 

Where  the  scythe  cuts  and  the  sock  rives 
Hae  done  \vi'  fairies  and  bee-bykes. 

Cromek's  Remains,  etc.  p.  293.  Flint  arrow-heads  believed  to  be  fairy  arrows  in 
the  North  at  end  of  century. — Stat.  Acct.,  Wick,  10-15. 

-  Pennant's  Tour,  i.  158  ;  Hist,  of  Galloxvay,  ii.  234. 

'  Pennant's  Tour,  i.  111-113  ;  Hogg's  Life  of  Wightman,  \).  110. 

*  Grant's  Superstition  of  Highlanders,  i.  180;  Pennant's  2'our,  i.  Ill  ;  Stat. 
Acct.  Scot.,  Logierait,  v.  82-85. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  195 

pious  fortitude,  the  parents  or  nearest  of  kin  performed  a 
lugubrious  dance,  with  streaming  eyes,  while  younger  members 
joined  in  livelier  measure.  From  birth  to  death,  with  rites 
unknown  to  the  Kirk,  with  beliefs  unknown  to  science,  the  life 
of  the  people  was  crowded. 


VIII 

Nothing  was  more  characteristic  of  Scotland  than  the  bleak, 
dreary,  treeless  aspect  of  the  scenery.  We  are  apt  to  treat  the 
jeers  of  old  English  travellers  on  this  point  as  merely  cockney 
libels,  and  to  consider  the  sarcasms  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  as 
only  ponderous  pleasantries  as  exaggerated  as  when  he  asserted 
that  a  "  tree  in  Scotland  is  as  rare  as  a  horse  in  Venice." 
Unfortunately,  the  jibes  contained  a  large  amount  of  truth. 
The  ancient  woods  had  disappeared  ;  wasted  by  raids,  burnt 
as  fuel,  destroyed  as  encumbrances  of  the  ground,  or  sold  by 
impecunious  owners.  We  become  almost  sceptical  of  their  ever 
having  existed  at  all  when  we  read  the  accounts  of  travellers, 
like  the  caustic  Sir  Anthony  Weldon,  who  in  1617  attended 
his  Majesty,  James  VI.,  to  his  northern  dominions,  and  protested 
that  "  Judas  had  scarce  got  a  tree  to  hang  himself,"  ^  if  he  had 
betrayed  his  Lord  in  Scotland  ;  and  Sir  William  Brereton,  who 
in  1636  says  "that  he  had  diligently  observed,  but  cannot  see 
any  timber  in  riding  100  miles."  Forests  there  were  truly  of 
great  extent ;  but  these  were  in  the  Highlands,"^  far  out  of  reach  in 
inaccessible  straths;  and  for  the  common  purposes  of  work,  for 
house-fitting,  for  ship-building,  for  implements,  fir  and  oak  were 
imported  from  Norway.  Only  around  the  houses  of  country 
gentlemen,  or  kirks,  in  the  more  cultivated  Lowlands,  were 
groves  or  clumps  of  wood — usually  sycamore  or  ash — to  be 
seen  at  the  beginning  of  the  century ;  and  most  of  these  of 
recent  origin.^     Throughout  Ayrshire  the  country  was  one  huge 

^  Early  Travels  in  Scotland,  edited  liy  Hume.  In  1440  jEneas  Sylvius 
(Pope  Pius  II.)  described  the  country  as  "destitute  of  trees." — P.  26. 

2  Accompt  Current,  by  J.  S[iiruell],  1705. 

^  Kirke,  travelling  in  1677,  is  able  to  speak  of  the  "  pleasant  woods  and  poli- 
cies "  he  passes,  of  "groves"  or  clumps  of  trees  about  the  many  pretty  houses 
of  the  gentry  he  rode  by  on  his  way  to  Edinburgh,  though  "not  a  tree  in  any 
part  of  the  country  elsewhere." — Acct.  of  Tour  in  Scotland,  by  Thomas  Kirke, 


196     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

naked  waste ;  not  a  tree  was  to  be  seen  in  the  open  land,  and 
none  to  be  found  anywhere  except  by  the  banks  of  the  Doon, 
the  Girvan,  and  the  Stinchar,  whereon  little  knots  of  stunted 
oaks  and  beeches  took  shelter.  Those  which  were  planted  by 
the  Countess  of  Eglinton  and  Lord  Loudoun  between  1730  and 
1740  were  only  isolated  patches  when  Dr.  Johnson  made  his 
memorable  visit  to  Auchinleck.  In  East  Lothian  there  were 
few  trees  except  round  some  gentlemen's  seats  older  than 
the  Eevolution.  It  was  in  1706^  that  Lord  Haddington, 
stimulated  by  the  taste  and  energy  of  his  wife,  gave  up 
his  beloved  field  sports  and  devoted  himself  to  improving 
his  estates,  and  began  planting  at  Tyninghame  on  the  deep 
sand  near  the  seaside,  in  spite  of  confident  assurances  that 
nothing  could  grow  on  such  a  barren  soil  and  in  such  a 
situation  exposed  to  the  ceaseless  salt  winds.  There  a  fine 
wood  sprang  up,  and  on  the  moorland  rose  the  lovely  Binning 
woods,  while  fields  formerly  wind-swept  and  desolate  became 
fertile  by  protection  from  belts  of  trees.  Through  Eoxburgh- 
shire  there  was  bleakness  and  barrenness  of  nature,  equalling 
that  of  Berwickshire  and  other  southern  counties,  until  round 
Floors  Castle  some  trees  were  planted  and  jealously  guarded 
about  1716.  Of  the  once  richly  wooded  Tweeddale  it  was  said 
in  1715  that  only  round  the  mansions  and  churchyards  were 
there  rows  of  plane  and  ash  to  be  seen,  and  these  were  still 
young. ^  Even  the  landlords  who  were  possessed  of  forests 
had  no  aesthetic  affection  for  them,  and  were  ready  to  sell  to 
the  highest  bidder  the  finest  timber  on  their  land.  Down 
went  splendid  fir  woods  ^  in  Argyllshire  to  an  Irish  company  at 
the  beginning  of  the  century  at  one  plack  a  piece,  and  to  utilise 
the  rest  of  the  deciduous  trees  the  speculators  set  up  their 
forges  near  Inveraray.  Woods  there  were  of  great  extent  in  the 
West  Highlands,  much  of  which  were  cut  down  for  sale  in 

p.  15  ;  Modern  Acct.  of  Scotland,  by  an  English  gentleman  (Thomas  Kirke); 
Early  Travels  in  Scotland,  p.  253  ;  Hamilton's  Description  of  Renfrewshire ; 
Monymusk  Papers,  Spalding  Miscellanies,  ii.  53. 

^   Treatise  on  Forest  Trees,  1764  [by  Charles  Lord  Haddington],  pp.  1-11. 

^  Jeffrey's  Roxburghshire,  iii.  19  :  Bailies  of  regality  in  1717  issue  proclama- 
tion, warning  offenders  who  "  jilucked  tlie  haws  from  the  thorns  that  defend  tlie 
yonng  plantations."     Dr.  Alexander  Pennicuick's  Works,  1818,  p.  57. 

*  Smith's  Survey  of  Argyllshire,  p.  138. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  197 

Ireland,  while  the  seaports  of  Scotland  were  importing  fir 
and  oak  wood  from  Norway  ^  and  from  Dantzic  to  build  their 
vessels  at  home,  and  others  from  lack  of  timber  were  built  in 
Holland  or  the  Baltic.  "When  the  York  Buildings  Company 
bought  forfeited  estates  of  1715,  they  bought  some  of  the 
finest  forests  in  the  country,"  the  great  pine-wood  of  Abner- 
nethy  or  Speyside,  60,000  of  the  best  fir-trees  of  Grant,  for 
2s.  4d.  each,  and  Mr.  Aaron  Hill  devised  the  plan  of  making 
the  timber  into  rafts  to  float  down  the  river. 

In  the  common  destitution  of  wood  in  the  Lowlands  it 
became  a  serious  difficulty  to  find  timber  for  a  public  building. 
Magistrates  were  in  straits  to  get  wood  for  a  town  steeple,  and 
heritors  for  a  beam  for  a  kirk  bell.^  The  most  common  trees 
had  been  originally  introduced  as  exotics  and  treated  with  the 
utmost  tenderness.  When  first  planted  in  Scotland  (the  lime  at 
Taymouth  in  1664,  the  silver  fir  in  1682,  the  maple  and 
walnut  in  1690,  the  laburnum  in  1704,  and  the  larch  in 
1727)  they  were  regarded  as  needing  delicate  tending  in 
gardens,  and  as  unfit  to  live  in  the  open  field  in  such  a  climate. 
The  plane  and  elder  were  the  chief  "  barren  trees  "  planted  at 
the  middle  of  the  previous  century,  beeches  and  chestnuts 
being  found  only  in  sheltered  gardens.  In  1727  a  gentleman 
brought  in  his  portmanteau  some  plants  of  larch  from  the 
Tyrol  and  gave  a  few  as  a  present  to  the  Duke  of  Atholl.* 
These — the  first  introduced  into  Scotland — were  kept  in  care- 
ful training ;  but  at  length,  being  planted  out,  as  too  big  for 
nursery  culture,  it  was  found,  to  vast  surprise,  that  they  lived 
and  throve  and  grew,  and  survivors  still  stand  as  ornaments  at 
Dunkeld,  parents  of  great  forests. 

*  Spruell's  Accompt  Current,  etc.,  1705,  pp.  31, 64  ;  Jefris'  Hist,  of  Union,  p.  174. 

2  Murray's  York  Buildings  Company,  1883,  p.  61. 

^  In  1703,  magistrates  of  Dunifries,  unable  to  get  timber  for  their  town  hall 
and  steeple,  had  to  get  it  from  gardens  on  the  Cree. — Maxwell's  County  of 
Dumfries.  Heritors  of  Lesmahagow,  in  1705,  in  despair  pass  a  resolution  "  to 
apply  to  Her  Grace  the  Duchess  of  Hamilton  for  ane  oak  tree  to  be  stoop  for 
supporting  the  bell,  because  they  can  get  it  nowhere  in  the  country." — Hist,  of 
Lesmahagow,  p.  146  ;  Walker's  Economic  Hist,  of  Hebrides  and  Highlands, 
ii.  212.  ^^  Scots  Gardner,  published  for  the  climate  of  Scotland,  by  John  Reid," 
1683,  enumerates  the  trees  for  gardens  :  oak,  elm,  ash,  maple,  lime,  hornbeam, 
hazel,  pine,  yew,  Scotch  fir. 

••  Hunter's  JToods  of  Perthshire,  p.  37. 


198      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Though  landlords  were  awakening  to  the  advantage  of 
planting  their  large  and  waste  estates,  the  progress  was  slow 
and  halting;  the  most  of  the  country  remained  destitute  of 
wood,  as  was  the  case  along  the  sea-coast  and  for  miles  back- 
wards in  Fife,  Buchan,  Aberdeenshire,  till  the  close  of  the 
century.^ 

May  we  not  attribute  to  this  bleak,  woodless  aspect  of  the 
country  the  rarity  in  Scottish  minstrelsy  of  reference  to  trees 
and  to  birds  which  frequent  the  woods  ?  We  find  songs  that 
celebrate  the  birches  by  the  river's  side, — the  "  Birks  of  Tulli- 
bole,"  the  "  Birks  of  Aberfeldy,"  the  "  Birks  of  Invermay,"— ^ 
but  there  were  few  trees  to  incite  a  poet,  and  under  whose 
"  contiguity  of  shade  "  to  woo.  If  there  is  a  strange  lack  of 
allusion  to  birds  of  any  variety  in  Scottish  song  we  may 
explain  it  by  an  observation  of  Captain  Burt  in  1730  :^ — "It 
has  been  remarked  that  here  [Inverness]  there  are  few  birds 
except  such  as  build  their  nests  upon  the  ground,  so  scarce 
are  trees  and  hedges."  The  lark's  song  and  the  curlew's 
shriek  were  familiar  enough  in  open  fields  at  that  time.  The 
cushat's  cooing  notes  were  heard  in  the  farmyard,  but  not 
so  familiar  was  the  voice  of  the  mavis  or  the  blackbird ;  while 
in  many  districts  the  linnet  would  have  as  vainly  as  Noah's 
dove  sought  for  a  branch  whereon  to  alight  in  a  day's  journey. 

The  sudden  awakening  of  landowners  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  usefulness  of  timber,  if  not  to  a  sense  of  the  picturesqueness 
of  woodland  scenery,  which  created  enthusiasm  for  planting, 
belongs  chiefly  to  the  second  half  of  the  century.  For  up  to 
1750  the  attempts  at  planting  were  hesitating  and  limited, 
partly  from  lack  of  money,  partly  from  opposition  of  the 
farmers  and  the  country  -  people.  Hedges  and  trees  were 
regarded  as  their  natural  enemies,  and  they  bitterly  complained 
that  the  roots  spoilt  the  ground,  the  shade  killed  the  grain,  and 
the  branches  fostered  the  birds  that  devoured  the  crops.^     In 

^  Anderson's  Agric.  in  Aberdeenshire,  p.  30. 

^  Letters  from  the  North  of  Scotland,  i.  p.  7. 

^  Morer's  Acd.  of  Scot.,  p.  170  ;  Kirke's  account  in  Early  Travellers  in 
Scot.;  Burt's  Letters  from  the  North.  "  Even  upon  the  skirts  of  the  Highlands, 
where  the  laird  has  indulged  in  two  or  three  trees  about  his  house,  I  have 
heard  the  tenant  lament  the  damage  done  by  the  droppings  and  shade  of  them 
as  well  as  the  space  taken  up  by  the  trunks  and  the  roots." — i.  324. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  199 

vehement  dislike  and  aggressive  resistance  to  this  new  and 
dangerous  innovation  of  planting,  the  people  did  everything 
they  could  to  hinder  it.  Under  cover  of  the  night  they 
pulled  up  the  saplings,  tore  down  the  branches,  and  maimed 
the  trunks,  and  often  in  the  morning  the  dismayed  laird  saw 
that  in  the  darkness  the  labours  and  pride  of  years  had  been 
ruthlessly  ruined.^ 

This  was  one  of  the  sorest  vexations  the  landlords  and 
factors  had  to  endure,  and  to  endure  without  redress.  If 
gangs  of  people  silently  and  secretly  did  this  havoc,  the  tenants 
would  not  inform  upon  them,  and  certainly  cared  not  to  check 
them.  The  barons  of  regality  might  issue  their  threats,  the 
statutes  of  the  State  might  renew  and  increase  their  penalties ; 
but  this  crime  of  arboricide  was  distressingly  frequent,  to 
the  discouragement  of  "  improvers."  ^ 

After  the  Eebellion  of  '45  we  find  gradually  a  remark- 
able change  coming   over  the   country.       It   was  being  dis- 

^  Dr.  Edmund  Calamy,  in  his  Own  Life,  ii.  162,  says  that  Sir  A.  Gilmour  of 
Craigmillar,  in  1710,  told  him,  on  his  remarking  on  the  scarcity  of  wood,  that 
"lie  was  very  fond  of  such  plantations,  but  the  people  had  an  incurable  aver- 
sion to  them — having  a  notion  that  they  spoiled  the  ground  and  eat  the  heart 
out  of  the  soil."  He  intimated  that  it  was  very  common,  notwithstanding  the 
strict  prohibition  of  the  laws,  backed  with  suitable  penalties,  for  the  country 
people  to  watch  their  opportunity  and  come  in  great  bodies  and  destroy  the 
trees.  In  1726,  Cockburn  of  Ormiston,  in  reply  to  his  tenant  factor,  writes  : 
"  I  must  desire  you  not  to  be  discouraged  by  what  you  say  of  the  country  people 
jiuUing  up  and  spoiling  your  trees.  ...  I  further  desire  you  will  endeavour  to 
catch  one  of  the  malicious  people." — Letter  given  in  Farmer  s  Magazine,  1804. 
Lord  Stair's  factor  in  Wigtonshire  complains  in  1731  to  his  lordship  that  "the 
people  will  not  let  the  plantations  grow." — ii.  183  ;  Annals  of  Viscount  Stair, 
and  \st  aiul  2iul  Earls  of  Stair,  ])y  Murray  Graham.  "A  general!  humour  in 
the  Commons  who  have  a  naturall  aversion  to  all  manner  of  planting,  and  they 
doe  not  fail  in  the  night  time  to  cut  even  with  the  root  the  prettiest  and 
strongest  trees  for  staves  and  plough-goads,  and  many  a  one  they  have  destroyed 
to  myselfe  ;  albeit,  if  they  stood  not  in  great  awe  and  fear  they  would  have 
done  greater  harm  to  my  plantations." — P.  41,  Glamis  Papers,  Scot.  Hist. 
Society  ;  Proclaniation  aiuL  Penalty  in  1733  against  destroying  Trees,  p.  149  ; 
Court-Book  of  Barony  of  Urie  ;  Acts  of  Parliament,  1716. 

-  Robbie's  Aberdeen:  its  Traditions  and  History,  1873,  p.  304.  Severe 
punishment  for  spoiling  trees  was  meted  out.  "1710. — J.  A.  having  been 
convicted  of  being  guilty  of  cutting  a  young  birch-tree  in  the  enclosures  of 
Hilton,  the  Justices  ordained  liim  to  be  returned  to  prison  in  the  Tolboothj 
Aberdeen,  and  to  remain  for  the  space  of  4  months,  to  be  publicly  whipped 
thro'  the  town  by  tlie  common  hangman  upon  first  Friday  of  each  month, 
and  remain  in  prison  till  he  find  sufficient  caution." 


200     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

covered  at  last  how  advantageous  it  was  to  have  woods, 
plantations,  and  hedges,  not  merely  to  beautify  the  landscape, 
but  to  shelter  the  fields  from  blasts,  and  storms,  and  drifting 
snow ;  to  drain  the  soil  of  its  bogs  and  swamps,  to  remove  the 
persistent  malady  of  ague  from  the  peasantry,  and  to  modify 
and  soften  the  rough  climate  of  an  unprotected  land. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE 
1750-1800 


About  the  middle  of  the  century  there  arose  a  new  era  in 
the  social  and  economical  condition  of  the  country.  One  by 
one  old  prejudices  in  the  Lowlands  lost  their  hold,  time-worn 
customs  began  to  die  out  and  ancient  ways  to  be  superseded. 
The  tentative  efforts  of  the  previous  forty  years  to  improve  the 
soil,  and  the  hard-won  experience  of  enterprising  innovators 
which  had  sometimes  ended  in  bankruptcy,  had  at  last  begun 
to  open  the  eyes  of  the  most  cautious  and  laggard  proprietors 
to  prospects  of  wealth  by  adopting  agricultural  processes  which 
across  the  border  had  brought  fertility  to  the  land  and  pros- 
perity to  its  people. 

Previous  to  this  period  most  of  the  farms  had  either  been 
let  without  leases,  or  on  very  short  tenure — two  or  four  years 
— which  starved  all  enterprise.  Now,  however,  as  they  came 
into  the  laird's  hands,  several  mailings  or  small  tenancies  were 
combined  into  one  farm  and  let  to  "  substantial "  tenants,  who 
came  under  agreement,  with  a  lease  of  nineteen  years,^  to  carry 
out  intelligent  modes    of   agriculture  with  regard  to  liming, 

^  Leases  did  not  become  common  till  about  1760.  In  1727  Forbes  of  Culloden, 
acting  for  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  whose  estates  he  managed,  let  lands  to  crofters  on 
leases  of  nineteen  years,  held  direct  from  the  landlord  instead  of  the  tacksman, 
commuting  services  to  money. — Argyll's  Scotland  as  it  was,  p.  529.  In  Ayr- 
shire, before  middle  of  century,  materials  and  implements  often  supplied  by 
landlord,  who  was  paid  in  kind  and  services  —  ^  crop  going  to  tenant,  ^  to 
owner — let  on  leases  from  3  to  19  years. — Fullarton's  Survey  of  Ayrshire. 


202     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

ploughing,  sowing,  the  use  of  artificial  grasses,  and  the  due 
rotation  of  crops.  Under  new  conditions  the  fields  were 
enclosed,  ground  was  drained,  limed,  and  manured  ;  ridges  were 
straightened  and  levelled ;  waste  places  were  reclaimed  from 
moor  and  marsh  ;  hedges  and  dykes  were  raised  ;  the  miserable 
gray  oats — or  "  small  corn  " — and  here  gave  place  to  prolific 
grains ;  and  potatoes  and  turnips  in  the  field  provided  provender 
for  cattle  and  food  for  the  people,  who  were  now  spared  the 
dread  of  periodical  dearth. 

With  the  gradual  abolition  of  run-rig  the  several  tenants 
had  no  longer  to  wait  in  the  morning  till  all  their  neighbours 
were  assembled  to  join  in  the  clumsy  operations,  but,  as  was 
observed  at  the  end  of  the  century,^  "  every  man  was  late 
and  early  at  his  work,  and  performed  twice  as  much  work  as 
when  the  work  was  common."  The  new  carts,  with  spoke 
wheels  revolving  on  their  axles,  took  the  place  of  the  lumber- 
ing "sleds"  and  "tumblers,"  and  conveyed  five  times  the 
quantity  in  one -fifth  of  the  time.  Primitive  tools  and 
appliances  of  the  country  gave  way  to  machinery.  The 
fanners  introduced  in  l7lO^  from  Holland  by  James  Meikle 
superseded  the  hand-riddle  on  the  winnowing  hill  or  "shealing 
law,"  though  it  was  not  till  1737  that  the  second  fanner  was 
set  up  in  Eoxburghshire ;  and  barley  mills  at  last  came  into 
common  use  about  1750,  though  they  had  been  set  up  first  in 
1710  at  Salton,  and  used  nowhere  else  for  forty  years.  The 
swing  plough,^  needing  only  two  horses,  in  time  displaced  the 
ponderous  wooden  construction,  with  its  lumbering,  slumbering 
team  of  oxen  and  horses ;  the  roller  crushed  the  clods,  which 
had  hitherto  been  smashed  one  by  one  with  a  wooden  mallet ; 
the  harness  was  made  of  leather,  instead  of  horse's  hair,  rushes, 
or  heather.  The  threshing- mill,'*  after  many  ingenious  but 
futile  efforts  of  others,  was  brought  to  admirable  practical 
shape  by  Andrew  Meikle,  miller,  millwright,  and  farmer,  the 

^  Smith's  Survey  of  Argyllshire,  1798,  p.  33. 

"  Maiise  Headrigg's  indignation  at  Cuddie  Headrigg's  working  in  tlie  barn 
"  wi'  a  new-fangled  macliine  for  diglitin'  the  corn  frae  tlie  chaff,  thus  impiously 
thwarting  the  will  o'  divine  providence,"  is  one  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  anachron- 
isms, antedating  the  invention  by  fifty  years. 

■''  Invented  in  1750  by  John  Small  of  Dalkeith. 

■*  Smiles's  Lives  of  Engineers,  vol.  i.  ;  Hepburn's  Agric.  East  Lothian. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  203 

son  of  James  Meikle,  who  had  introduced  fanners  and  barley 
mills.  Constructed  about  1776  on  a  faulty  plan,  it  was  com- 
pleted in  1787,  and  proved  an  immense  boon  to  agriculture. 
By  the  threshing -mill  seventy  or  eighty  bushels  of  wheat 
might,  to  the  amazement  of  the  people,  be  threshed  and 
cleaned  in  an  hour;  and  besides  this  saving  of  time  it  effected 
a  saving  of  grain,  compared  with  the  flail,  to  the  extent  of  a 
hundredth  of  the  corn ;  equal  in  value,  it  was  computed,  to 
£2,000,000  in  Great  Britain.^  Scotland,  at  last,  by  its 
ingenuity  in  devising  machinery,  or  its  expertness  in  adopting 
and  adapting  experiments,  was  making  up  for  the  sluggishness 
and  inertness  of  the  past ;  and  new  implements,  intelligent 
modes  of  farming,  better  grain,  and  more  prolific  cereals,  were 
revolutionising  agricultural  life. 

The  leaders  in  these  great  changes  were  not  the  tenants. 
They  had  neither  capital  nor  enterprise  enough  to  try  any- 
thing, and  not  personal  interest  enough  to  do  anything,  so 
long  as  so  much  of  the  land  w^as  common  and  leases  were 
uncommon.  Noblemen  and  gentry  of  energetic  minds  had 
for  many  years  been  anxious  to  improve  their  estates,  and 
had  even  brought  from  England  ploughmen  and  farmers  to 
teach  their  countrymen  the  ways  which  had  been  so  successful 
in  the  south.  In  1723^  the  Society  of  Improvers  of  Knowledge 
of  Agriculture  was  formed,  its  most  active  spirit  being  the 
secretary.  Maxwell  of  Arkland,  whose  efforts  to  improve  the 
land  ruined  his  own  fortune,  brought  him  to  insolvency,  and 
reduced  the  "  Lady  Arkland "  to  keep  a  little  shop  in  the 
Edinburgh  High  Street.  The  society  included  two  hundred  enter- 
prising gentlemen,  and  in  the  Select  Society  Transactions  published 
by  Maxwell  ^  we  find  the  very  rudiments  of  husbandry  treated 
as  startling  problems.  "  Questions,"  "  Answers,"  and  papers 
are  there  found  by  peers,  judges,  and  lairds,  on  fallow,  drain- 
ing, turnips,  suggestions  on  sowing  whin   seed,  manuring  with 

'  In  about  twenty  years  after  there  were  350  threshing -mills  in  East 
Lothian. 

^  The  writer  of  Essay  on  Ways  and  Means  of  Enclosing,  Falloioing,  etc., 
1729,  strongly  recommends  the  bringing  of  Englisli  workmen  to  teach  English 
husbandry,  and  especially  lauds  the  Devonshire  method,  which  is  called 
"Denshiring," — improvement  of  the  land  by  Jire. — P.  152. 

3  Edinburgh,  1743. 


204     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

sea-ware,  or  improving  ground  overrun  with  rushes,  and  such 
like.  Though  the  society  died  out,  its  influence  lived  on. 
Among  the  improvers  in  the  first  half- century  were  the 
daughter  of  Lord  Peterborough,  who  became  Duchess  of  Gordon,^ 
and  carried  English  ways  to  the  North  with  immense  energy 
and  success ;  the  Countess  of  Haddington,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  century ;  and  Susanna,  Lady  Eglinton,  in  the  middle. 

There  were  parish  ministers  experimenting  on  their  glebes 
and  the  acres  they  rented  to  increase  a  scanty  income,  trying 
new  methods ;  like  the  grotesque  genius  Wilkie  of  Cramond, 
known  in  literature  by  his  forgotten  Epigoniad,  for  which  his 
countrymen  proclaimed  him  "  immortal,"  but  known  in  less 
cultured  rural  quarters  as  "  Potato  "Wilkie,"  from  his  enthu- 
siastic culture  of  a  more  successful  and  digestible  fruit  of  his 
labour.  Scientific  men  were  also  busy  improving,  like  Dr. 
Hutton  the  geologist,  who  brought  ploughmen  from  Dorset  to 
initiate  his  workmen  in  Duns,  and  is  said  to  have  been  the 
first  to  use  the  two-horse  plough.  Lawyers  and  judges  joined 
the  ranks  of  farmers,  such  as  Lord  Kames,^  who  at  Blair 
Drummond  began  to  cast  the  moss  from  the  marshes  in  the 
swampy  district  of  Kincardineshire,  to  drain  the  spongy  soil, 
to  encourage  the  tardy  use  of  lime  and  marl,  and  at  the 
venerable  age  of  eighty  published  his  shrewd,  if  whimsical. 
Gentleman  Farmer  to  enlighten  his  countrymen  ;  while  a  brother 
judge.  Lord  Stonefield,  was  striving  to  bribe  tenants  in  Dum- 
bartonshire to  sow  turnips.  Nobles  and  members  of  Parlia- 
ment wrote  from  London  to  their  factors  lengthy  epistles,  giving 
the  latest  hints  from  Middlesex,  and  expecting  all  their  recom- 
mendations to  be  carried  out  for  adopting  impossible  projects 
at  home.  Trade  meanwhile  was  spreading  over  the  country ; 
villages  in  course  of  time  rose  into  towns ;  places  once  un- 

'  "I  remember  on  that  lady's  first  coming  to  Scotland  I  lieard  she  caused 
bring  down  English  ploughs  and  skilful  plowmen  to  fallow.  I  can  trace  that 
most  useful  and  valuable  operation  no  liigher  in  Scotland  than  that  excellent 
lady's  coming  among  us.  .  .  .  Scotland  is  indebted  to  the  Duchess  for  right 
method  of  making  hay,  planting,  laying  out  grounds  for  gardening  and 
parterres,  transforming  old  Gothick  architecture  to  the  beauty  and  convenience 
of  the  latest  Italian  houses  prevailing  with  gentry  in  northern  shires,  to  enclose, 
drain,  and  plant,"  etc. — Essay  on  Enclosing,  Fallowing,  etc.,  1729. 

■■*  Tytlcr's  Life  of  Lord  Karnes,  ii.  30. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  205 

known  became  active  centres  of  industry ;  the  linen  trade, 
shipping,  woollen  factories,  were  giving  labour  to  large  numbers 
of  people  drawn  from  rural  districts ;  and  with  the  increase  of 
commerce  and  manufactures  there  grew  up  a  demand  alike  for 
grain  and  cattle  for  home  consumption  and  for  export,  all  which 
gave  stimulus  to  landlords  to  greater  energy  and  fuller 
cultivation. 

Perhaps  no  legislative  measure  helped  forth  this  object 
more  thoroughly  than  the  Turnpike  Act  of  1751,  an  Act 
which  assessed  farmers  and  proprietors  in  equal  proportion  for 
the  maintenance  of  efficient  public  roads ;  thereby  securing 
means  of  communication  between  every  district  and  every 
town  by  the  carts,  which  could  now  go  easily  over  once  almost 
impassable  tracks. 

The  Eebellion  of  '45  proved  a  blessing  in  disguise  to  the 
Scottish  people,  for  it  was  one  of  the  most  important  causes  of 
the  opening  up  and  consequent  cultivation  of  the  north  country. 
It  brought  the  Highlands  more  in  touch  with  the  southern 
counties ;  it  promoted  trade,  traffic,  intercourse  beyond  the 
once  inaccessible  "  line."  The  Disarming  Act  changed  lazy 
vassals  into  sturdy  workmen  ;  they  were  forced  to  change  their 
swords  to  ploughshares  and  their  targets  into  tops  for  butter 
firkins,  as  Boswell  on  his  tour  was  informed.  The  forfeiture 
of  the  rebel  estates  threw  into  the  market  and  into  the  hands 
of  energetic  men  lands  which  had  for  centuries  been  ill 
governed,  impoverished  petty  kingdoms,  where  chiefs  reigned 
over  hordes  of  lazy,  half-starved  subjects.  The  abolition  of 
hereditary  jurisdictions  also  brought  from  Government  com- 
pensation of  over  £152,000,  which  was  an  immense  sum  in 
the  estimation  of  impecunious  gentlemen,  to  devote,  if  they 
chose,  to  bettering  their  estates. 

Without  money,  however,  nothing  could  be  done  to  im- 
prove the  soil,  and  so  long  as  rents  were  to  a  large  extent  paid 
in  kind  there  was  little  money  to  spend.  The  system  of  pay- 
ment of  rents  began  now  to  be  changed,  and  lairds  were  not 
obliged  to  sell  for  what  it  might  bring  the  stored-up  rent  of 
oats  and  barley  from  their  girnals ;  and  at  last,  and  for  the 
first  time,  they  had  silver  which  they  could  use  for  practical 
purposes.      It  is  obvious  that  cliiefs,  so  long  as  they  were  paid 


2o6      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

in  sheep,  capons,  oats,  although  they  might  have  enormous 
tracts  of  country  and  multitudinous  retainers,  could  do  little 
or  nothim^  for  their  barren  soil.  Adam  Smith  remarks  that 
in  the  Eebellion,  Cameron  of  Lochiel,  though  he  could  carry 
into  the  field  for  Prince  Charlie  800  of  his  own  people,  had 
only  a  rental  in  money  of  £500.^  These  were  not  the  men 
to  lay  out  capital  in  altering  the  condition  of  estates  which 
were  measured  by  hundreds  of  square  miles. 

The  establishment  of  banks  about  1760  in  country  towns 
proved  a  very  important  element  in  the  future  economical 
progress  of  the  country.  County  gentlemen  were  by  -this 
institution  enabled  to  get  money  on  good  security,  which  they 
could  use  to  their  advantage.-  Tenants  united  as  securities  for 
each  other,  and  farmers  could  be  accommodated  with  means  to 
stock  their  farms  and  lime  their  acres ;  while,  owing  to  the 
extension  of  paper  -  money,  people  in  towns  were  ready  to 
advance  cash  on  easy  terms.  Nor  must  there  be  omitted 
another  fruitful  source  from  which  the  taste  and  means  for 
improvement  came.  That  was  the  return  of  Scotsmen  who 
had  made  their  lacs  of  rupees  in  the  East  India  Company's 
service,  and  invested  part  of  their  fortunes  in  buying  estates 
and  social  position  in  their  native  land.  These  nabobs  had 
money  to  spend ;  they  had  no  hereditary  prejudices  to  trammel 
them ;  their  superciliousness  to  natives  in  the  East  did  not 
render  them  delicate  to  susceptibilities  of  old  farmers  at  home, 
and  they  changed  at  their  will  and  improved  where  they  chose 
with  lavish  hand.^  Prosperous  Glasgow  merchants — Virginia 
traders — also  bought  estates,  and  with  an  eye  to  business  made 
the  most  of  their  new  lands  and  novel  position  as  lairds. 

The  last  of  the  many  contributory  influences  to  agricultural 
change  which  may  be  mentioned  was  the  "  Montgomery  Act " 
of  1770 — a  measure  due  to  the  Lord  Advocate,  Sir  James 
Montgomery.  This  statute  enabled  owners  of  entailed  estates 
to  enclose,  to  drain,  to  build,  to  plant,  or  in  other  ways 
permanently  improve   the   property,  by  authorising  them   to 

^    Wealth  of  Nations,  chap.  viii. 

2  Ramsay's  Scot,  and  Scots,  ii.  252  ;  Fullarton's  Survey  of  Ayrshire,  p.  18. 

'  "No  less  than  eight  estates  of  considerable  value  have  in  my  recollection 
been  bought  in  Roxburghshire  by  gentlemen  who  have  returned  from  East 
Indies." — Somerville's  Life,  p.  360. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  207 

settle  on  their  successors  the  burden  of  an  equitable  propor- 
tion of  the  expense — the  profits  of  which  they  should  reap. 
This  relief  from  legal  restriction  gave  an  invaluable  stimulus 
to  the  cause  of  agriculture,  to  the  consequent  enlargement  of 
the  incomes  of  the  lairds. 


II 

While  enterprising  gentlemen  and  vigorous  tenants,  eager 
to  be  "  improvers,"  were  striving  in  many  parts  of  the  country 
to  supersede  old  worn-out  methods,  their  laudable  efforts  were 
not  always  thoroughly  successful.  In  their  impatience  to  make 
more  money  and  augment  their  rent  rolls  at  a  bound,  not  a 
few  made  egregious  mistakes,  which  greatly  rejoiced  the 
admirers  of  old  times — the  despisers  of  new-fangled  ways. 
These  sceptical  onlookers  saw  with  satisfaction  that  when  the 
lofty  crooked  ridges  were  levelled  the  productive  soil  was 
buried  in  the  deep  ditches,  furrows,  and  baulks  that  it  filled 
up ;  while  the  backs  of  the  old  rigs  were  left  bare  and  stony 
and  barren  for  generations.  Indeed,  for  fifty  years  after  the 
ancient  ridges  could  be  traced  as  zig-zagging  lines  of  sterility 
through  the  fields.  The  enthusiast  for  enclosing  broke  up 
the  land  into  countless  subdivisions,  making  ludicrously 
minute  fields  of  two  or  three  acres,  wasting  ground  by  need- 
less boundaries  of  hedge  and  dyke  and  ditch.  So,  without 
discrimination,  the  agriculturists,  with  the  unbounded  zeal  of 
converts,  put  every  scheme  they  read  or  heard  of  into  opera- 
tion. Lairds  read  the  writings  of  every  English  theorist,  the 
pamphlet  of  each  crotcheteer.  They  tried  in  Caithness 
methods  which  suited  to  perfection  the  sunny  meadows  of 
Surrey ;  they  expected  Stirlingshire  to  produce  crops  as  early 
as  Kent.  It  was  admirable  in  theory,  as  it  was  excellent 
in  practice,^  in  the  light,  well-drained  soil  of  the  south  to 
plough  in  autumn  instead  of  dawdling  to  spring ;  but  it  was 
at  first  disastrous  to  plough  in  deep  till -clay  land,  which, 
as  Lady  Pitlyal  of  Mystifications  has  said,  "  greets  a'  winter 
and  grins  a'  summer,"  drenched  with  rain,  undried  through 
"  haars,"  during  which  the  seed  rotted  when  it  was  wet,  and 
1  Ramsay's  Hcut.  ami  Scots,  ii.  241. 


2o8     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

through  which  the  blades  could  not  pierce  when  dry.^  These 
blunders  were  a  great  solace  to  farmers,  who  naturally  winced 
when  noblemen  brought  ploughmen  from  Norfolk  and  Dorset 
to  show  them  how  to  do  their  work,  and  in  broad  English 
dialect  ridiculed  venerable  narrow  Scots  ways.  Nor  was  there 
dissatisfaction  when  veterans  observed  that  while  the  national 
thistle  disappeared  under  a  cleanly  system,  foreign  docks 
appeared  with  the  rye  grass  and  clover  in  their  stead. 
Enmity  was  full  in  many  districts  at  the  harsh  and  brusque 
eviction  of  many  an  old  tenant  family  to  make  way  for  those 
who  would  carry  out  their  lordships'  whims." 

Amidst  the  flow  of  prosperity  and  wealth,  which  came 
gradually,  there  were  several  changes  which  at  the  time — but 
only  temporarily — proved  disastrous  among  the  rural  popula- 
tion. The  abolition  of  small  farms  or  "  mailings,"  paying  a 
rental  of  from  £7  to  £17,  and  the  sweeping  away  of  cottages 
where  maybe  eight  tenants  lived,  to  make  way  for  their 
amalgamation  into  one  large  farm,  thrust  many  people  out  of 
employment,  forced  many  to  drift  into  towns,  and  many  to 
emigrate.  This  hardship,  of  course,  fell  more  heavily  on  the 
farming  class  than  on  their  work-people,  who  quickly  got 
occupation  in  the  industries  which  were  everywhere  springing 
up.  Those  who  suffered  most  were  the  tenants,^  whose  forbears 
had  held  the  same  "paffle"  for  generations  undisturbed,  who  were 
dismissed  to  make  room  for  speculative  men  from  Anuandale  and 
Dumfriesshire,  and  many  a  farmer  was  reduced  to  become  a 
farm  servant  under  the  new  master.  Far  worse  was  the  case 
in  the  North,  where  100  tenants  might  be  displaced  to  form  a 
sheep-walk,  and  the  change  was  resisted  at  times  by  riots  and 
defiance  of  the  people,  who  drove  the  sheep  away,  and  were 
punished  for  their  violence  by  transportation  for  nine  years. 

1  FuUartoii's  Su,rvey  of  Ayrshire,  p.  8  ;  Vve's  Dumbartonshire,  p.  104  ;  Ure's 
East  Kilbride,  p.  180. 

2  When  in  1760  Mungo  Campbell,  the  poaching  exciseman,  murdered  Lord 
Eglinton,  there  was  more  sympathy  for  the  exciseman  than  for  the  noble,  who 
had  made  himself  unpopular  alike  by  the  misimi)rovement  of  his  life  and  the 
still  more  irritating  improvement  of  his  estates,  liis  changes  of  old  customs,  his 
interference  with  old  tena.nts.— Cha.mhers'  ilinor  Antiquities  of  Edinburgh,  p. 

163,  1833. 

3  Stewart's  Sketches  of  Highlands,  i.  126. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  209 

These  old  tenants,  reduced  to  the  position  of  day  labourers, 
took  crofts  by  the  sea-shore  of  two  or  three  sandy  acres,  and 
eked  out  a  precarious  living  by  fishing.^  With  farmers  the 
hardship  was  both  real  and  lasting  in  many  instances. 

It  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that  the  reclamation  of  waste 
lands  from  moor  and  bog  gave  more  occupation  to  active 
men  than  the  old  system  ever  did.  Eventually  it  was  not 
the  work-people  who  were  reduced  in  numbers,  for  there 
was  more  work  to  do  than  in  lazy  days — more  money  to 
spend  in  agricultural  labour ;  and  the  chief  difference  was 
that  the  new  school  preferred  married  men  who  lived  in 
cottages  with  their  families — by  the  way,  much  to  the  im- 
provement of  rustic  morality — to  young  men  who  lived  with 
the  farmer  and  sat  at  his  board,  who  were  sons  of  village 
weavers  and  tailors.^ 

There  was  no  institution  which  had  added  so  powerfully 
to  the  importance  of  nobles,  and  especially  Highland  chiefs,  as 
that  of  hereditable  jurisdiction.  Barons  and  chiefs  had  for 
centuries  possessed  certain  seignorial  rights  of  administering 
law  and  repressing  crime  throughout  their  own  districts.  They 
held  courts  of  regality,  in  which  they  or  their  baron  bailies,  who 
served  as  assessors,  acted  as  judges  with,  and  sometimes  with- 
out, a  jury  of  their  own  vassals  or  tenants.  Having  power 
over  life  and  limb,  they  did  not  hesitate  to  exercise  it,  and  un- 
fortunate culprits,  at  the  whim  or  judgment  of  the  hereditary 
sheriff,  might  be  confined  to  a  fetid  dungeon,  without  appeal  or 
redress  against  any  miscarriage  of  justice.  Their  position  was 
one  not  merely  of  dignity,  but  of  considerable  profit ;  ^  but  its 
abolition  in  1748,  and  the  substitution  of  responsible  legal 
sheriffs  of  counties,  was  a  great  relief  to  tenants,  who  had  had 

^  Lettice's  Tour,  p.  364  ;  Walker's  Hebrides  and  Highlands,  ii.  380 ;  Stewart's 
Sketches,  vol.  i.  ;  Pennant's  Tour,  ii.  281-3. 

2  Against  the  notion  that  the  new  system  resulted  in  permanent  depopula- 
tion see  Ramsay's  Scot,  and  Scots,  ii.  209.  —  Hepburn's  East  Lothian ; 
Farmer  s  Magazine,  p.  380,  1801. 

'  As  duties  or  "customs"  to  the  hereditary  sheriff  or  bailie  of  barony,  each 
farmer  supplied  2  ploughs,  4  pair  horses  and  harness  for  1  day  ;  and  6  shearers 
in  harvest  for  1  day,  6  hens,  1  threave  cow.  8  hours  for  peat  loads — this  after- 
wards commuted  into  money. — Agncw's  Hereditary  Sheriffs,  527  ;  Anderson's 
State  of  Society  and  Knowledge  in  Highlands,  p.  104  ;  Stewart's  Sketches  of  the 
Highlands,  i.  p.  110. 

VOL.  I  14 


2IO     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

to  pay  the  potentate  so  many  "  customs  "  of  hens,  days'  work, 
and  peat,  per  annum,  for  the  privilege  of  very  bad  law. 

The  serious  social  result  of  depriving  Highland  chiefs  of 
their  ancient  privileges,  and  the  disarming  of  their  vassals 
after  the  '45,  was  the  disappearance  of  the  old  patriarchal 
interest  and  pride  which  they  had  taken  in  their  clansmen. 
Formerly  they  had  plumed  themselves  on  the  number  of  their 
retainers ;  but  they  now  descended  from  the  high  state  of 
kinglets,  vain  of  the  number  of  their  subjects,  to  that  of  lairds 
vulgarly  eager  for  the  increase  of  their  rents.  They  sought  to 
rid  themselves  of  the  superfluous  population,  dismissed  sub- 
tenants at  will,  and  installed  tenants  on  lease ;  they  gave  up 
the  tacksmen,  who  were  members  of  the  clan,  for  Lowland 
farmers  who  cared  nothing  for  the  people ;  they  deported 
inhabitants  and  imported  sheep.  No  longer  supreme  in  their 
mountain  castles,  and  bereft  of  feudal  power  and  pomp,  they 
became  acute  tradesmen.  The  highest  bidder  came,  and  the 
unremunerative  crofter  went.^  These  landed  gentry  had  more 
money  now  at  their  disposal  to  spend,  but  they  spent  it  in 
society ;  their  "  hearts "  might  be  "  in  the  Highlands,"  but 
their  bankers  were  in  London.  And  the  hearts  of  the  people 
turned  from  their  old  chiefs.  Sometimes,  in  their  eagerness 
to  make  fortunes,  the  chiefs  overreached  themselves.  They 
thought  to  uproot  in  a  year  the  inveterate  customs  of  ages, 
and  tried  to  overcome  all  at  once  indolence  and  improvidence 
engrained  in  the  race.  Expecting  from  the  barren  tracts  of 
Eoss-shire  the  abundant  returns  of  the  fertile  acres  of  the 
Lothians,  they  overrented  their  land  and  overestimated  their 
incomes.  Not  seldom  bankruptcy  was  the  fate  of  men  hasting 
to  be  rich,  who,  as  Pennant  expressed  it,  "  emptied  the  sack 
before  it  was  filled."  "  I  have  lived  in  woful  times,"  said  an 
Argyllshire  chief  in  1788;  "  when  I  was  young  the  only 
question  asked  concerning  a  man  of  rank  was.  How  many  men 
lived  on  his  estate  ?  then  it  was,  How  many  black  cattle  it 
could  keep  ?  but  now  it  is,  How  many  sheep  will  it  carry."  ^ 

^  Mackenzie's  i2c^or<  on  Agric.  of  Boss ;  Stewart's  Sketches  of  Highlands,  i. 
160-200  ;  Robertson's  Agric.  of  Inverness. 

2  Scott's  IForks,  "Periodical  Criticism,"  iv.  32,  1835. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  211 


III 

Troubles  always  attend  economic  measures  which  promote 
social  progress,  for  hardship  is  the  inevitable  accompaniment 
of  every  process  of  development ;  and  in  the  struggle  for 
existence  the  weak  must  suffer,  that  the  fittest  may  survive. 
The  surest  signs  of  progress  in  any  industry  are,  however, 
to  be  found  in  the  increase  alike  of  gains  of  the  master 
and  wages  of  the  servant,  and  here  the  evidence  is  striking, 
even  startling.  In  a  few  years,^  land  which  had  for  more 
than  a  century  been  let  at  the  same  rent  of  Is.  6d.  to  3s. 
an  acre,  rose  to  21s.  in  Berwickshire;  land  in  Perthshire, 
which  had  brought  at  its  highest  5s.,  in  nine  years  advanced 
to  l7s.  an  acre,  and  in  1784  had  bounded  up  to  45s. ;  and  in 
Ayrshire,  ground  which  had  of  old  been  let  for  5  lbs.  of  butter 
per  acre,  easily  let  for  25  s.  after  being  drained  and  limed.  In 
the  Carse  of  Gowrie  land  which  had  let  at  the  supposed  high 
rent  of  6s.  8d.  an  acre  had  risen  in  twenty  years  (in  1783) 
to  £6.2 

Nor  was  this  advance  of  rent,  enormous  as  it  was,  effected 
at  the  cost  of  the  farmers  or  the  people,  for  the  records  of 
those  days  prove  the  reverse.  The  statement  of  a  witness  from 
Perthshire  is  confirmed  by  experience  in  every  district.  In 
Fortingal  the  "rents  in  1750  were  not  much  above  £1500, 
and  the  people  were  starving;  now  (1793)  they  pay  £4600, 
and  there  is  fulness  of  bread."  ^  When  estates  went  into  the 
market  the  change  in  rural  conditions  was  made  evident  by 
the  prices  paid  for  them.  For  generations,  so  long  as  antiquated 
systems  of  husbandry  continued,  their  value  remained  the  same ; 
but  when  the  agricultural  revolution  came  they  increased  as 
if  by  magic.     For  instance,  an  estate  in  Banffshire  which  had 

'  Low  and  Bruce's  Agric.  of  Berwickshire,  i*.  104  ;  ^tat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Long- 
forgan,  xix.  525;  Symington,  viii.  397:  "Formerly  land  let  at  Is.  6d.  an 
acre  to  tenants  verging  on  bankruptcy."  In  Kilwinning,  in  1742,  the  average  was 
3s.,  in  1792  it  was  18s. — StaL  Acct.,  Kilwinning,  Alloway  ;  Stewart's  Sketches 
p.  141. 

^  Donaldson's  Carse  of  Gowrie.  In  Arrocliar,  land  let  for  £8  in  1740  was,  in 
1790,  let  as  sheep-walks  for  £80. — lire's  Dumbartonshire,  p.  15. 

^  Stat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Fortingal. 


212      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

in  1647  a  rental  of  £455  had  crept  slowly  up  by  1730  only 
to  £555,  but  in  fifty  years  the  rental  had  risen  to  £2800  ; 
another  in  Dumfriesshire  produced  in  1760  £950  rental,  and 
in  1790  it  went  up  to  £4750.^  Such  instances,  taken  almost 
at  random,  show  the  rapid  increase  in  productiveness  of  the 
soil  and  value  for  the  land. 

In  the  Highlands,  wherever  cultivation  or  cattle  rearing 
had  been  introduced,  similar  results  followed  in  its  train. 
Glenelg  estate,  for  example,  which  had  been  bought  of  old  for 
a  few  thousand  merks,  had  in  1786  a  rental  of  £600,  and 
twenty-five  years  later  its  value  had  increased  so  enormously 
that  it  was  sold  for  £100,000.^  Another  estate  put  up  for 
sale  by  the  Court  of  Session,  with  a  rental  of  less  than  £30, 
was  bought  for  what  was  considered  the  high  sum  of  £1200, 
to  be  sold  again  in  1825  for  £25,000.  Cases  abound  of  the 
value  of  estates  which  for  100  years  hardly  increased  at  all 
going  in  thirty  years  up  to  five  or  even  eight  times  the  rental 
of  the  past.^ 

Along  with  the  steady  development  of  landlords'  fortunes 
there  went  on  an  equivalent  rise  in  farmers'  profits,  for  they 
found  ample  recompense  for  all  their  outlay  on  the  soil  and 
the  larger  rent  of  the  land.  While  the  prices  of  corn  increased 
materially,  owing  to  increased  demand  in  an  industrial  popula- 
tion and  to  the  excellence  of  the  grain, — so  different  from  the 
miserable  old  gray  oats  and  here, — the  amount  produced  under 
the  new  husbandry  had  increased  in  volume.  Besides  that, 
there  was  produce  of  turnips  and  potatoes,  artificial  grasses, 
sheep  and  oxen,  to  increase  the  tenant's  gains.  For  the  sale 
of  his  goods  there  were  now  easy  means  of  communication  and 
transit  by  land  and  sea ;  and  products  for  which  of  old  he 
could  not  get  a  market — shut  up  as  he  had  been,  by  want  of 
conveyance  and  badness  of  roads,  from  the  world — were  carried 
to  any  town,  and  profits  rose  every  year.  So  far  from  tenants 
being  oppressed  by  the  enhanced  rents,  they  laid  by,  if  they 

^  Blat.  Acd.  Scot.,  Banff,  xx.  397  ;  Lougforgan,  xix.  522  ;  Troqueer,  i.  195. 
In  Caithness,  grazings  let  in  1794  for  £87,  in  1803  were  let  for  £QQQ.— Farmer  s 
Mag.  1804,  p.  5. 

^  Anderson's  State  of  Highlands,  p.  132. 

^  Rental  of  land  in  Scotland  in  1748  estimated  at  £822,857  {Scots  Mag. 
1748).     In  1813  it  amounted  to  £6,285,500.— Chalmers'  Caledonia,  vii.  11. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  213 

were  wise,  no  little  money,  and  in  many  instances  were  able  to 
purchase  their  land  and  even  to  buy  considerable  estates.-^ 

At  the  same  time  the  profits  from  rearing  stock  rose  with 
great  and  rapid  strides.  Instead  of  the  lank,  half- starved 
sheep  with  as  little  flesh  on  their  bones  as  they  had  wool  on 
their  backs,  selling  at  2  s.  6d.  or  3  s.  each,  there  were  larger 
animals  amply  fleeced,  producing  four  times  the  former  amount 
of  wool,  and  sold  at  from  9s.  to  18s.  each.  Instead  of  the 
little,  wretched,  black  breed  of  cattle  which  weighed,  when 
fattened,  only  eleven  or  twelve  stones,  and  cows  which  yielded 
three  or  perhaps  two  pints  of  milk  a  day,  there  were  the  Ayr- 
shire or  Galloway  cattle  weighing  twenty-four  stones,  and  cows 
producing  twelve  pints  (Scots).^  No  wonder  prices  went  up 
in  equivalent  measure :  that  horses,  which  formerly  could  be 
got  from  £3  to  £7,  could  not  be  procured  at  the  end  of  the 
century  for  less  than  £15  or  £20  ;  and  cattle,  Highland  and 
Lowland,  had  doubled  or  trebled  in  value.^ 

When  these  changes  had  occurred  with  new  life,  new 
energy,  new  interest,  Scottish  agriculture,  so  far  from  being  a 
byword,  became  a  model  for  imitation  by  England — its  skill, 
its  activity,  its  methods,  its  success,  became  matters  of  fame ; 
and  when  one  recalls  the  contemptuous  terms  in  which  travellers 
from  the  south  formerly  spoke  of  the  old  miserable  husbandry, 
and  the  indolent  ways  of  the  people,  it  is  curious  to  find  in 
1790  an  eminent  Scots  agriculturist  complacently  speaking  in 
similar  terms  of  the  habits  beyond  the  Border  :  "  An  observing 
man  who  was  bred  in  Scotland  is  astonished  when  he  sees  in 
England  the  languor  and  indolence  which  almost  everywhere 
prevail    in    regard    to    agriculture."  ^      In    the   next   century, 

'  "When  the  change  took  place  a  farmer  could  with  a  dozen  years'  industry 
be  able  to  purchase  the  land  he  rented,  -whicli  many  did." — Allan  Cunningham, 
quoted  in  Lockhart's  Life  of  BiLrns,  p.  194.  "More  estates  liave  been  bought 
lately  in  the  district  round  Perth  by  farmers  than  by  any  other  class  of  men. 
Many  estates  particularly  have  been  purchased  by  Carse  farmers." — Hall's 
Travels,  i.  265. 

^  Stat.  Acct.,  Cambuslang,  Kilmartin,  viii.  109. 

2  Ramsay's  Scot,  and  Scots.,  ii.  223.  In  1723,  in  CrieflF,  30,000  cattle  at  the 
tryst  were  transferred  to  English  drovers  ;  at  end  of  century  there  were  100,000 
sold. — Nimmo's  Stirlingshire,  ii.  612. 

*  Anderson's  Agric.  of  Aberdeenshire,  p.  151.  "Old  people  say  that  one 
servant  does  as  much  work  as  two  in  former  times." — Stat.  Acct.  of  Scot.,  Craw- 
ford, iv.  609. 


214     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

instead  of  ploughmen  coming  from  Dorset  to  teach  Scots 
farmers  to  work,  East  Lothian  stewards  and  ploughmen  were 
taken  to  instruct  English  yokels  to  farm.^ 

The  increase  of  population,  the  growth  of  towns  in  which 
the  chief  industries  were  centred,  caused  larger  demand  for 
provisions  of  all  kinds,  and  the  tenants  easily  requited  them- 
selves for  bigger  rents  by  bigger  prices.  Meanwhile  the  peas- 
antry shared  in  the  general  prosperity,  and  by  1790  their 
earnings  were  exactly  double  what  they  had  been  in  the 
middle  of  the  century,  having  risen  to  £14  or  £15  a  year.^ 

With  the  improvement  in  wages  went  a  marked  improve- 
ment in  social  condition  and  intellectual  character — there 
was  more  spirit,  more  energy,  more  alertness  in  mind  and 
body.  The  miserably  lethargic  manner,  the  prematurely 
aged  look,  gradually  disappeared  in  every  district  where  soil 
was  under  new  conditions  of  husbandry.  "I  travelled,"  said 
one^  of  the  most  intelligent  of  observers  in  1790,  "through 
some  places  where  not  many  years  ago  the  people  were 
wretchedly  poor,  want  sat  upon  every  brow,  hunger  was 
painted  on  every  face ;  neither  their  tattered  clothes  nor  their 
miserable  cottages  were  a  sufficient  shelter  from  the  cold  ;  now 
the  labourers  have  put  off  the  long  clothing,  the  tardy  pace,  the 
lethargic  look  of  their  fathers,  for  the  short  doublet,  the  linen 
trousers,  the  quick  pace  of  men  who  are  labouring  for  their 
own  behoof,  and  work  up  to  the  spirit  of  their  cattle,  and  the 
rapid  revolution  of  the  threshing-machine."  The  "  blue  rags  " 
in  which  farmers  and  workmen  had  before  been  clad  gave  way 

^  Memoirs  of  a  Highland  Lady.  "  lu  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
Grant  of  Rothiemurchus,  on  tlie  estate  at  Hertfordshire,  is  establishing  Scots 
farming  with  a  Scots  grieve  to  teach  rotation  of  crops,  deep  ploughing,  hay 
making,  corn  cut  with  scythe,  stall-fed  cattle." — P.  55. 

-  Ploughmen  at  the  close  of  the  century  got  £6  :  10s.  to  £7  ;  while  the 
married  ploughmen,  besides  their  cottage,  had  £6  in  money,  6|  bolls  of  meal,  and 
other  "gains,"  which  made  their  income  about  £14  or  £15 — double  what  they 
had  forty  years  before.  In  1790  they  had  from  £2  :  5s.  to  £3.  Day  labourers 
advanced  from  6d.  in  summer  (working  from  6  a.m.  to  6  p.m.)  and  5d.  in 
winter  (from  sunrise  to  sunset)  to  from  lOd.  to  Is. — Stat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Alva, 
Dailly  ;  Ramsay,  ii.  211.  The  wages,  of  course,  varied  much  in  different  districts. 
"  Bounties  of  women  consisted  of  6  ells  of  coarse  linen  or  harn  ;  5  ells  of 
grey  cloth,  2  ells  plaiding  or  coarse  flannel,  and  two  pairs  of  shoes."^Robcrtson's 
Agric,  Mid-Lothian,  ji.  40. 

^  Robertson's  Agric.  of  Perthshire,  p.  65. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  215 

to  comfortable  garments  of  a  more  prosperous  age.  The  rough 
plaiding  of  the  ploughman  of  previous  generations  was  discarded, 
and  he  went  well  clad  and  shod  to  work ;  the  woollen  shirts, 
worn  unchanged  for  months  together,  gave  way  to  linen — 
though  older-fashioned  folk  alleged  that  this  substitution  of 
linen  shirts  for  woollen  was  the  cause  of  a  great  increase  of 
colds  and  rheumatism  amongst  the  people.  Behold  him  in 
1790  in  Sunday  attire :  "  In  his  coat  of  blue  cloth  at  5s.  6d.  a 
yard,  velveret  vest  and  corduroy  breeches ;  white  cotton  stock- 
ings, calf-skin  shoes ;  black  silk  shoulder  knots,  shirt  with 
ruffles  at  the  breast,  white  muslin  cravat,  fringed,  hat  worth 
8s.  to  10s.,"  ^  a  watch  in  his  fob,  though  forty  years  before 
not  one  was  to  be  found  in  a  whole  parish  except  on  the 
laird's  and  minister's  persons.  This,  of  course,  describes  the 
best  specimen  of  ploughman  in  the  most  advanced  districts, 
but  even  the  poorest  had  greatly  improved.  Young  women,^ 
no  longer  satisfied  with  the  rough  woollen  stuffs,  wore  cotton 
dresses,  and,  though  barefooted  on  week-days,  appeared  well- 
shod,  in  cotton  dress,  duffle  cloaks,  and  bonnets  in  church. 
The  farmers'  daughters  and  wives,  contemptuous  of  home-made 
webs,  had  their  gowns  of  silk,  and  their  fashions  from  Edin- 
burgh, and  lived  in  an  ambitious  style  which  as  yet  fitted 
them  badly.  The  plainest  farmer  was  now  clad  in  English 
broadcloth,  and  could  boast  of  a  hat ;  and  the  rich  farmer, 
assuming  new  manners,  prided  himself  on  his  dress,  on  his 
house,  and  his  blood-horse.^  With  changed  conditions  had 
gone  from  the  people  much  of  the  dirt  and  most  of  the  olden 
squalor,  though  there  remained  much  room  for  improvement. 
From  them  also  had  vanished  many  a  superstition ;  and 
brownies,  elves,  and  fairies  only  survived  in  fireside  stories  in 
the  winter  nights."* 

'  Robertson's  Agric.  of  Mid- Lothian,  p.  28  ;  Roger's  Agric.  of  Forfarshire,  p.  3. 

2  ' '  Formerly  the  women  appeared  in  church  in  bed  blankets  or  tartan  plaids  ; 
now  they  wear  scarlet  i)laids  and  dufllc  cloaks  and  bonnets.  Old  home- 
made dresses  superseded  by  English  cloth  for  Sunday  and  finer  stuffs  for  every- 
day clothing." — Stat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Logic  Pert ;  Bathgate,  i.  356. 

■'  Allan  Cunningham  in  Lockhart's  Life  of  Burna,  p.  199. 

•*  Fanner's  Mag.  1801,  p.  390  ;  Robertson's  Mid-Lothian,  p.  2.  To  the 
proposition  to  clean  the  churn  before  putting  in  the  cream,  "Na,  na,"  returned 
Mrs.  M'Clarty,  "that  wadna  be  canny,  ye  ken.  Naebody  would  clean  their 
kirn  for  ony  consideration." — Hamilton's  Cottagers  of  Glenburnie,  1804,  p.  391. 


2i6     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Other  things  had  changed  in  the  social  condition  of  the 
people — and  had  changed  vastly  for  the  better.  The  fare  was 
no  longer  restricted  to  the  monotonous  oat  and  barley-meal 
diet  in  its  various,  but  not  varied,  forms.  In  the  kailyard 
there  was  no  longer  a  meagre  supply  of  vegetables — chiefly 
cabbage  and  greens ;  but  turnips,  carrots,  potatoes,  and  many 
others  in  which  they  took  pride  and  loved  to  cultivate,  along 
with  the  currant  and  gooseberry  bushes,  and  roses,  flowers, 
and  beloved  peppermint.  The  use  of  these  vegetables  had, 
it  was  said,  a  markedly  favourable  effect  upon  the  health  of 
the  peasantry.^  The  price  of  meat  had  risen,  owing  to  the 
quantity  now  consumed  in  towns,  and  by  1780  it  cost  3d.  or 
4d.  a  pound,  instead  of  Id.  or  l^d.  of  thirty  years  before.  But 
in  spite  of  advance  of  price  far  more  was  used  in  rural  places, 
and  the  ploughmen  usually  had  meat  twice  or  thrice  a  week, 
instead  of  partaking  of  it  only  on  those  occasions  when  an 
aged,  diseased,  or  starved  sheep  was  found  dead  in  the  fields,  or 
a  cow  expired  in  the  stalls.^ 

The  common  drink  of  the  people  of  old  had  been  ale, 
which  was  brewed  in  every  farmhouse,  and  sold  in  every 
change-house  or  tavern ;  it  was  drunk  everywhere  by  the 
peasantry,  and,  indeed,  by  every  class.  But  by  the  imposition 
of  the  malt  tax,  the  production  of  it  was  greatly  affected ;  and 
partly  owing  to  the  increasing  cost  and  to  the  gradual  influx 
of  spirits,  smuggled  or  legal,  the  use  of  ale  diminished,  while 
whisky — in  1780  only  lOd.  a  quart,  on  which  no  excise  was 
being  paid— came  more  and  more  into  use,  and  where  formerly 
the  workmen  were  regaled  with  "  twopenny,"  now  they  were 
presented  with  whisky. 

Yet  another  beverage  came  into  vogue  as  a  dangerous  rival 
to  ale.  The  introduction  of  tea  was  met  with  animosity  by 
the  haters  of  new-fashioned  beverages  and  the  patriotic  lovers 
of  old  native  products.  Town  councils,  heritors,  and  ministers 
equally  denounced  it,  and  parishes  aftiicted  with  smuggling 
entered  into  resolutions  to  abstain  from  tea,  just  as  people  take 

^  Walker's  Hebrides  aiul  Hifjhlaiuls,  i.  98,  99. 

^  In  1793,  in  East  Lothian,  there  was  broth  of  pot  barley  and  butcher  meat  for 
dinners. — Hepburn's  Agric.  of  East  Lothian.  In  Elgin  and  Moray  there  was 
meat  on  Sundays  and  holidays. — Donaldson's  Agric.  in  Moray  and  Elgin,  p.  25. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  217 

pledges  to-day  against  alcoholic  drinks.  In  1744  the  heritors  of 
East  Lothian  complained  that "  the  luxurious  and  expensive  way 
of  living  has  shamefully  crept  in  upon  all  classes  of  the  people, 
who,  neglecting  the  good  and  wholesome  produce  of  our  own 
country,  are  got  into  the  habit  of  an  immoderate  use  of  French 
wines  and  spirits  " ;  ^  as  also,  "  that  the  drinking  of  tea,  and 
especially  among  people  of  the  lower  rank,  has  arrived  at  an 
extravagant  excess  to  the  hurt  of  private  families  by  loss  of 
their  time,  increase  of  their  expense,  and  negligence  of  a  diet 
more  suitable  to  their  health  and  station."  ^  Farmers  and  lairds 
in  parishes  entered  into  solemn  bonds,  under  self-imposed 
penalties,  not  to  drink  a  drug  so  demoralising  and  pernicious. 
But  in  spite  of  all  opposition,  in  spite  of  its  cost,  it  won  its 
way  into  the  affections  and  homes  of  all  classes — not  to  the 
hurt,  but  to  the  advantage  of  the  people,  who  found  in  it  a 
substitute  for  far  less  innocent  drink.^ 

Improvements  were  going  on  in  the  homes  as  well  as 
in  the  food  and  clothing  of  the  agricultural  classes.  As  time 
wore  on  a  great  change  came  over  the  hovels  without  chim- 
neys to  let  out  the  smoke  or  glazed  windows  to  keep  out  the 
blast,  with  the  foul  air  of  cows  in  the  one  end  of  the  house, 
the  peojjle  in  the  other,  and  the  poultry  on  the  rafters,  with 
the  heather  roofs,  which  made  the  abode  a  more  comfortable 

^  1740. — Wigtown  Town  Council  resolve  to  discourage  smuggling  and  tea- 
drinking. — Hereditary  Sheriffs,  p.  530.  The  example  set  by  the  parish  of 
Swinton  of  subjecting  themselves  to  penalties  in  case  of  any  breach  of  these 
resolutions  was  followed  by  the  barony  of  Brisbane  and  Col.  FuUarton  and  his 
tenants  in  Ayrshire.  These  last  in  their  bond  speak  of  tea  thus  :  "We,  being 
all  farmers  by  profession,  think  it  needless  to  restrain  ourselves  formally  from 
indulging  in  the  foreign  and  consumptive  luxury  called  tea  ;  for  when  we  con- 
sider the  slender  constitution  of  many  of  the  higher  rank,  amongst  whom  it  is 
most  used,  we  conclude  that  it  would  be  an  improper  diet  to  qualify  us  for 
the  more  robust  and  manly  parts  of  our  business,  and  therefore  only  give  our 
testimony  against  it  and  leave  the  enjoyment  of  it  altogether  to  those  who 
can  afford  to  be  weak,  indolent,  and  useless." — Morren's  Annals  of  Gen. 
Assembly,  i.  61. 

-  Considerations  of  Present  State  of  Scot.,  Edin.,  1744. 

3  When  gradually  beer  and  "twopenny"  gave  way  to  tea,  the  people 
transferred  the  terms  for  brewing  their  home-made  ale  to  the  process  of  making 
their  tea  ;  the  name  for  the  operation  of  "mashing"  or  "masking"  when  the 
hot  water  was  added  to  the  malt,  was  given  to  infusing,  by  adding  water  to  the 
tea.  "Brewing  tea"  still  an  expression  used  in  south-east  counties. — Stat. 
Acd.,  i.  87. 


2i8      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

home  for  rats  than  for  human  beings.  A  more  decent  order 
of  things  began.  Even  outlying  districts  like  Rannoch  in 
Perthshire  shared  in  the  happy  progress.  In  1750  the  bulk 
of  the  tenants  had  no  such  things  as  beds.  They  lay  on  the 
ground,  with  a  little  heather  or  ferns  under  them,  on  rough 
blankets.  Their  houses  could  only  be  entered  on  all  fours, 
and  then  it  was  impossible  to  stand  upright.  But  in  1790 
they  are  rejDorted  as  decently  clean,  well-clad,  in  lighted  houses 
built  of  stone.  The  life,  habits,  food,  dwellings  of  the  people 
had  undergone  throughout  a  great  part  of  Scotland  a  mar- 
vellous transformation.^ 


IV 

Not  less  a  change  was  undergone  in  the  physical  aspect 
of  the  country  and  the  appearance  of  the  landscape.  The 
purple  heather  and  yellow  whins  were  giving  way  to  corn ; 
bogs  and  marshes  were  turning  into  pasture ;  bleak  moors 
were  being  covered  with  wide  forests  of  pine  or  woods  of  larch, 
ash,  and  elms.  The  landscape,  so  universally  monotonous  and 
bare,  with  occasional  patches  of  elders,  birch,  and  stunted  oak 
by  river  brinks,  or  clamps  of  ash  and  elm  around  country 
mansions  or  churchyards — making  the  surrounding  scenes  the 
drearier  by  contrast — became  beautified  and  diversified  by 
belts  of  plantations  to  shield  the  fields,  thorn  hedges  by  the 
road,  and  forests  miles  wide  in  circumference. 

In  1735,  the  Edinburgh  Society  for  Encouraging  Arts, 
Science,  and  Agriculture  had  sought  to  overcome  the  perverse 
dislike  of  farmers  to  trees,  by  offering  prizes  of  £10  to  any 
who  should  plant  the  largest  number  (not  less  than  1000)  of 
timber  trees — oak,  ash,  elm — in  hedgerows  before  December 
1736.  But  in  a  short  while,  so  far  from  its  being  necessary 
to  stimulate  planting,  it  seemed  impossible  to  curb  the  rage 
for  it.  Lairds  and  nobles  had  now  discovered  a  use  for  their 
timber,  especially  for  their  larches,  in  new  industries  and 
shipyards,  which  were  rapidly  springing  up ;  and  they  had 
acquired  a  taste  for  woods  as  enhancing  the  beauty  as  well  as 
the  profits  of  their  estates.      Grant  of  Monymusk,  continuing 

1  Stat.  Acct.,  Fortingal,  ii.  458. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  219 

till  old  age  the  work  he  had  begun  as  a  youth  in  1716, 
planted  his  50  millions,  chiefly  of  spruce  fir.  Lord  Kndlater 
began  in  1767  to  plant  in  Nairnshire  eleven  millions  in  a  desert 
of  his  estates;  and  Lord  Moray ,^  with  over  twelve  million 
beeches,  oaks,  elms,  at  the  same  time  planted  his  fine  woods  at 
Darnaway.  About  1750  and  1760  began  to  be  planted  at 
Taymouth  and  Scone — hitherto  treeless — those  woods  which 
are  so  magnificent  to-day.  Fifty  years  after  the  tiny  larch- 
saplings  had  been  handed  out  of  Mr.  Menzies's  portmanteau  to 
the  Duke  of  Atholl  in  1727,  Duke  John — the  "planting  Duke " 
— with  a  keen  eye  to  business  as  well  as  for  the  picturesque, 
covered  16,000  acres  with  twenty-seven  million  of  larches.^ 
Young  lords  and  law  lords,  lairds  great  and  small,  took  to 
planting  and  pruning  as  formerly  they  had  taken  to  hunting 
or  drinking,  and  shrewd  proprietors  shared  the  views  of  the 
prototype  of  the  Laird  of  Dumbiedykes  on  his  deathbed : 
"  Jock,  when  ye  hae  naething  else  to  dae,  ye  may  aye  be 
sticking  in  a  tree  ;  it  '11  be  growing,  Jock,  when  ye  are  sleeping." 
Thus  began  a  new  industry  for  trade  and  a  new  source  of 
profits  to  landowners.^  Every  laird  with  a  £100  rental 
reared  his  thousands.  On  Saturday  he  planted ;  and  on 
Sunday,  during  the  soporific  discourses  in  kirk,  he  planned  his 
planting  for  Monday.  When  a  minister  rebuked  his  heritor 
for  running  after  Whitfield,  he  got  the  effectual  answer :  "  Sir, 
when  I  hear  you  preach  I  am  planting  trees ;  but  during  the 
whole  of  Mr.  Whitfield's  sermon  I  have  not  time  to  plant 
one."'*  It  was  after  the  middle  of  the  century  that  the 
passion  for  raising  woods  and  enclosing  by  hedges  reached  its 
height,  transforming  the  appearance  of  the  country ;  "  inso- 
nmch,"  says  a  writer  in  1797,'^ — with  delightful  complacency 
and  bland  exaggeration, — "  tliat  a  native  who  had  left  this 
country  in  1760  on  his  return  at  this  date  would  find   him- 

^  T.  Doiid]dson'a  AgricuU'Krc  of  Nair7ishire, 

''  Hunter's  J  Foods  of  Perthshire,  p.  15. 

^  Molcndinnar  Saw-mill  at  Glasgow  was  erected  by  Mr.  Fleming  in  1751 — 
the  first  timber  mercliant  who  introduced  into  general  use  Scots-grown  fir  for 
common  purjTOses,  such  as  making  coflins,  packing-boxes,  house  lathing,  etc. — • 
Glasgow  Past  and  Present,  iii.  129. 

■*  Tyerman's  Life  of  Jflntfield,  ii.  525. 

*  Brown's  Hist,  of  Glosjov,  ii.  194. 


220     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 

self  only  to  be  directed  by  the  geography  of  the  surrounding 
mountains."  ^  Even  in  the  wilder  parts  of  the  land  a  change 
was  proceeding  rapidly.  By  the  end  of  the  century  in  Eoss- 
shire  there  flourished  forests  of  pine  and  oak,  extending  over 
many  miles,  where  fifty  years  before  there  were  only  bare  and 
barren  tracts.  The  clothinfr  of  the  ground  with  woods  and 
forests  seemed  even  to  affect  the  climate ;  it  was  said  ^  to  have 
become  milder  than  in  former  days,  when  there  was  a  drenched 
soil  and  unprotected  wastes. 

But  in  1773,  when  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  made  his  ever 
memorable  "  tour  to  the  Hebrides,"  ^  enormous  districts  were 
still  untouched,  especially  along  the  route  northwards  and 
westwards  by  which  he  pursued  his  journey.  Other  districts, 
again,  had  only  been  begun  to  be  planted  a  few  years  before, 
and  the  saplings  put  in  about  1765  in  Nairn,  Elgin,  and  Moray 
by  several  noblemen  can  only  have  been  a  few  feet  high. 
There  was  hardly  any  timber  about  Inverness.  "  Aberdeen- 
shire, for  miles  backward  from  the  sea-coast,"  says  a  writer 
so  late  as  1794,  "  is  perfectly  destitute  of  trees,  and  Buchan 
is  proverbially  bare,  so  that  in  many  parts  of  it  Churchill's 
description  is  literally  true :  '  Far  as  the  eye  can  reach  no 
tree  is  seen.'  "  ^ 

Dr.  Johnson,  therefore,  can  hardly  be  accused  of  gross 
exaggeration  in  his  contemptuous  references  to  the  barrenness 
and  bleakness  of  the  landscape  in  much  of  the  land  he 
traversed.  At  the  same  time,  he  failed  to  give  any  indication 
of  or  any  credit  for  that  planting  enthusiasm  which  was  in 
the  course  of  a  generation  to  falsify  his  descriptions  and  to 
unsting  his  satire. 


In  this  survey  of  the  changes  which  had  come  over  the 
rural  condition  of  the  country  and  the  circumstances  of  the 

'  It  is  apparent  that  Sir  "Walter  Scott's  statement  is  quite  mistaken  :  "  The 
love  of  planting,  which  has  become  almost  a  passion,  is  much  to  be  ascribed  to 
Dr.  Johnson's  sarcasm." — Croker's  Corrcspoiulence,  ii.  34. 

-  Robertson's  Agric,  of  Perthshire. 
Boswell's  Tour  to  the  Hebrides,  and  Johnson's  Journey,  passim. 

*  Douglas,  East  Coast  of  Scotland,  1782,  p.  276  ;  Newte's  Toiir,  p.  192. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  221 

people,  we  must  guard  ourselves  from  having  an  exaggerated 
estimate  of  the  extent  of  the  progress,  and  from  having  too 
roseate  a  notion  of  the  improvement  alike  in  land  and  in 
inhabitants.  Widespread  as  was  the  progress,  it  was  not 
universal ;  rapid  in  some  places,  in  others  it  was  almost 
imperceptible  at  the  close  of  the  century.  In  the  outlying 
quarters  of  even  Lowland  counties  there  was  little  alteration, 
and  from  Forfarshire  to  Dumfries  there  were  large  districts 
where  the  run-rig  system,  with  its  antiquated  and  obstructive 
fashions,  still  prevailed ;  where  much  land  lay  still  unen- 
closed, and  where  roads  remained  impassable  during  a  great 
part  of  the  year.^  Still  in  many  quarters  lumbered  the  olden 
plough  with  its  eight  or  ten  oxen,  four  abreast,  preparing  the- 
soil  for  the  "  gray  oat "  or  "  small  corn,"  which  was  obsolete  in 
every  other  civilised  part  of  the  land. 

While  these  things  were  done  even  in  the  low  country 
matters  were  far  more  backward,  as  might  be  expected,  in  the 
Highlands.  "  Speaking  generally,"  says  one  who  travelled  over 
the  land  in  agricultural  interests  in  1790,  "  the  Highlands  may 
be  said  to  lie  in  an  open  state " ;  even  the  properties  were 
unmarched  by  dykes.  In  Caithness  and  Sutherland  the  roads 
were  still  unmade,  and  in  order  to  get  fuel  they  had  to  go  for 
miles  over  the  moorland — so  far  off  that  they  required  to 
remain  out  all  night  in  the  open  air,  returning  next  day  with 
their  scanty  loads  of  ten  or  twelve  peats  in  every  creel  borne 
by  the  dwarfish  horses,  all  in  a  line,  each  tied  to  its  fellow  by 
the  tail.  There,  as  in  the  Hebrides,  the  people  persisted  in 
using  "  graddan  bread  " — obtained  by  setting  fire  to  oats  and 
barley  in  the  sheaves,  and  then  grinding  in  the  stone  querns 
the  parched  grains  left  when  the  straw  was  blown  away." 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  oases  of  barley,  oats,  and  natural 
grass,   Pennant,   about    1770,  found   the   land   "an   immense 

^  In  Dumfriesshire  "more  land  open  than  there  is  enclosed." — Bryce  John- 
stone's Agric.  of  Dumfriesshire,  1794.  In  Dumbartonshire  "a  third  of  the  land 
lies  open." — lire's  Agric.  of  Ditmhartoashire,  1793,  p.  19.  In  Perthshire 
"three-fifths  of  land  is  open." — Robertson's  Agric.  of  Perthshire,  p.  60.  "In- 
field and  outfield  continued  still  considerably." — T.  Johnstone's  Agric.  of 
Tweeddale,  p.  39  ;  Marshall's  Central  Highlands,  p.  40. 

^  Walker's  Hebrides  and  Highlands,  ii.  370 ;  Pennant's  Tour,  i.  202  ; 
J.  L.  Buchanan's  Travels  in  West  Hebrides,  1793. 


222      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

morass."     The  inhabitants  had  themselves  done  their  utmost 
to  make   their  country  waste,  and   assisted   nature  by  their 
stupidity  to  make  it  barren.     They  denuded  the  ground  of  its 
best  pasture,  using  the  turf,  instead  of  the  too  abundant  stones, 
for  making  their  fences  and  building  their  huts,^  that  were 
dark,  dank,  and  malodorous,  from  whose  mouldering  walls  and 
roofs  there  fell  on  the  inmates  the  dust  of  the  clay  and  the 
insects  from  the  rotting  sods.      As  an  Englishman  gazed  from 
the  naked  ground   to   the   green  covered  huts,  he  remarked, 
with  astonishment,  that  in  Sutherland  "  the  people  made  their 
houses  of  the  grass,  and  fed  their  cattle  on  the  stones." "     In 
truth  the  crofters  concerned  themselves  extremely  little  as  to 
how  the  soil  was  treated ;  for  whenever  they  had  got  all  the 
good  out  of  the  ground,  and  done  all  possible  harm  to  it,  they 
removed  the  doors  and  rafters  from  the  hovel,  which  at  once 
fell  into  a  dirty  heap,  and  quietly  settled  elsewhere,  where  they 
rebuilt  a   hut   and  again   destroyed  the   soil.     All  over   the 
North  were  to  be  seen  these  heaps  of  earth  and  stones  which 
were  the  remains  of  decayed  turf  cots  and  fences.      "  There  are 
immense  tracts,"  ^  lamented  a  witness  of  all  this,  "  that  have 
been  robbed  of  their  surface  throughout  great   parts  of  the 
North  of  Scotland,  where  in  many  places  only  a  few  solitary 
tufts  remain  to  inform  posterity  that   these  wastes  now   so 
naked  and  desolate  were  once  covered  with  herbage."     These 
very  ruins  have  been  mistaken  by  posterity  for  proofs  of  olden 
cultivation  by  an  industrious  population,  who  have  been  evicted 
from  their  ancestral  holdings  by  ruthless  progress,  by  rapacious 
land  grabbers,  and  by  selfish   landlords.      The  sentiment  in 
these  cases,  it  may  be  seen,  has  been  misapplied. 

In  such  districts — remote,  uncivilised — the  laborious  out- 
door work  was  entirely  left  to  the  women ;  which  roused 
indignation  in  the  chivalrous  bosom  of  Mr.  Pennant,  who 
declares  that  "  the  tender  sex  amongst  the  Caithnessians  are 
the  only  beasts  of  burden ;  they  turn  their  patient  backs  to 
the  dunghill,  and  receive  into  the  keises  or  baskets  as  much  as 
their  lords  and  masters  think  fit  to  fling  in  with  the  pitchfork, 

^  Farmer  s  Magazine,  1804,  p.  406. 
2  tStat.  Acct.  Scot.,  Dornoch,  viii.  6. 
'  Farmer's  Magazine,  p.  408,  1804. 


THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE  223 

and  they  trudge  to  the  fields  in  droves."  As  they  bore  their 
burdens  beneath  which  their  backs  were  bending,  they  spun 
the  flax  on  their  distaff  as  they  walked.  If  a  crofter  lost  his 
horse,  he  found  it  more  economical  to  marry — for  the  wife 
would  do  more  work  than  the  departed  beast.  This  use  of 
women  as  beasts  of  burden  was  not  restricted  to  these  far-off 
and  barbarous  regions :  in  every  district  where  men  had  no 
servants  or  animals,  the  women  were  loaded  with  the  hardest 
labours.^ 

No  wonder  the  women  had  that  haggard,  withered,  "  old 
look  "  even  while  young  in  years,  which  startled  the  traveller 
into  commiseration.  These  brown,  wrinkled,  parchment 
visages  were  due,  however,  not  entirely  to  exposure  to  every 
weather  outside,  but  partly  to  peat-smoked  life  in  the  filthy 
hovels,  made  of  parcels  of  mortarless  stones  huddled  together  ; 
or,  worse  still,  in  the  immemorial  bee-huts  of  the  Hebrides, 
with  their  green  turf  roofs,  making  them  hardly  distinguishable 
from  the  ground — 5  or  6  feet  high,  and  6  feet  thick — to 
which  entrance  was  gained  by  creeping  as  into  an  Eskimo's 
ice  dwelling,  by  a  low  tunnel.  The  people  were  prolific,  but 
the  hardness  of  their  lot  kept  down  the  numbers.  Significant 
is  Adam  Smith's  remark  on  the  physical  condition  of  these 
people :  "  It  is  not  uncommon,  I  had  frequently  been  told,  in 
the  Highlands  for  a  mother  to  liave  borne  twenty  children  and 
not  to  have  one  alive."  ^ 

We  may  make  a  mistake,  however,  in  supposing  that  these 
people,  so  ill-fed,  ill-clad,  ill-housed,  felt  as  wretched  as  they 
looked  in  their  rags,  dirt,  and  squalor.  Darwin  found  that  he 
had  quite  misplaced  his  sympathy  on  the  Fuegiaus ;  for  after 
pitying  them  as  they  stood  with  uncovered  bodies,  exposed  to 
the  icy  blasts,  the  pelting  sleet,  and  blinding  snowstorms  of 
these  bleak,  inhospitable  coasts,  he  found  that  they  preferred 
the  comforts  of  their  accustomed  savage  misery  to  what  they 
considered  the  misery  of  new  civilised  comforts.  They  had 
their  uncouth  pleasures,  these  crofters,  to  mitigate  their  lot ; 
"  indolence,"  which,  one  who  knew  them  well  said,  "  was  the 
only  enjoyment  they  had,"  certainly  never  palled  upon  them. 

^  Pennant's  Tour;  Highlandi  0/ Scot,  in  1750  (edit,  by  Lang),  p.  7. 
^  Wealth  0/ Nations,  bk.  i.  ch.  8. 


224     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

They  loved  loitering  in  the  long  winters  by  their  peat  fires ; 
they  loved  the  dawdling,  intermittent  labour  in  the  sunshine 
of  their  straths,  which  were  dear  to  them,  and  associated  with 
family  and  clan  memories  and  affections  which  are  keen  in 
the  Highland  breast. 

It  has  been  usual  to  attribute  the  want  and  destitution  in 
the  North  mainly  to  the  evictions  of  an  industrious  peasantry 
from  their  beloved  ancestral  homes,  in  the  interest  of  heart- 
less owners  who  sought  scope  for  improvements  alike  in  their 
properties  and  their  incomes.^  That  there  were  many  cases 
of  harsh  treatment — the  thrusting  of  poor  folk  from  their  old 
homes,  their  old  occupations,  with  little  warning  and  no  con- 
sideration— was  undoubtedly  the  case.  But  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  localities  where  poverty — hopeless,  continual  poverty — 
most  prevailed  were  the  very  places  where  fewest  changes  in 
the  farming  system  were  made ;  the  districts  where  population 
diminished  or  migrated  were  the  very  quarters  where  sheep- 
walks  and  extensive  farms  were  longest  of  being  introduced. 
The  greatest  destitution  was  not  in  the  parts  of  Caithness 
where  sheep  had  been  imported  to  be  grazed  on  land  which  in 
ten  years  rose  to  six  times  its  former  value.  On  the  contrary, 
it  was  in  districts  where  the  old  ways  remained  unchanged 
from  time  immemorial ;  it  was  where  the  tenants-in-chief  or 
tacksmen  had  secured  their  tenure  often  at  a  rental  of  from 
£30  to  £100,  and  sublet  the  laud  to  perhaps  twenty  or  thirty 
crofters,  who  each  paid  for  a  miserable  patch  of  ground  from 
15  s.  to  40  s.  of  rent,  exacted  in  the  form  of  grain,  provisions, 
and  services,  leaving  only  enough  to  enable  them  to  subsist  in 
semi-starvation.^ 

^  In  comparing  Dr.  Webster's  estimate  of  the  population  in  1755  with  Sir 
John  Sinclair's  in  1795,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  in  the  Highland  counties  of 
Argyll,  Ross,  and  Inverness,  where  sheep-walks  and  large  farms  were  introduced 
(followed  by  an  outcry  at  depopulation),  the  number  in  1755  was  170,440,  and 
in  1795,  200,226.  In  the  southern  counties  of  Berwick,  Wigtown,  and  Dumfries 
in  1755,  the  population  was  135,183,  which  in  1795  had  risen  to  163,166.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  counties  like  Elgin,  Banff,  Aberdeen  (exclusive  of  the  city), 
the  population  had  fallen  from  172,261  to  163,261,  and  these  were  the  districts 
where  there  was  continued  the  small  tenantry  and  the  old  fashions  of  husbandry. 
— Farmer  s  Magazine,  May  1801,  p.  139. 

2  MS.  of  Graham  of  Gartmore,  appendix  to  Burt's  Letters,  ii.  1815.  In 
some  quarters,  especially  in  the  Hebrides,  ' '  the  tacksmen  who  rented  from  the 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  241 

the  church  door  on  the  sacramental  Monday)  were  condemned 
by  ecclesiastical  courts ;  but  rebukes  and  threats  of  ministers 
were  disregarded.  In  vain  did  Kirk-Sessions  "  desire  their 
minister  to  exhort  the  people  not  to  mock  God  by  casting  into 
the  offering  dyots  and  other  money  that  is  not  current."  ^  In 
vain  did  the  Synod  of  Aberdeen  in  1755  appoint  its  moderator 
"  to  talk  with  the  officers  of  custom  to  do  what  they  could 
to  prevent  the  importation  of  base  coin."  ^  Yet  all  these 
charges  sink  into  insignificance  before  the  accusation,  that 
country  people  in  Aberdeenshire  were  in  the  practice  of  putting 
into  the  plate  bad  halfpence  and  of  taking  out  good  ones.^ 
The  church  collections  were  invaluable  receptacles  for  useless 
coin';  and  it  is  significant  that  after  the  poor-box  at  Old  Machar 
had  been  broken  into  and  the  contents  stolen,  the  burglar  boy 
was  at  once  detected  by  the  simple  fact  that  in  playing  cards 
with  his  comrades  he  had  nothing  to  stake  save  bodies,  doyts, 
and  bad  halfpennies.  These  could  have  come  from  no  shop,  for 
merchants  were  too  cautious  to  take  them ;  the  conclusion  was 
inevitable  that  they  came  from  the  poor-box,  where  alone  people 
had  the  conscience  and  courage  to  put  them. 

As  in  some  churches  there  were  two  bad  coins  for  every 
three  good  ones,  the  serious  problem  yearly  arose  in  every 
parish,  how  to  dispose  of  them  ?  Owing  to  the  glut  in  the 
market,  the  elders  who  were  appointed  to  sell  their  ill  money 
"  went  to  the  various  smiths  to  see  what  they  can  get."  * 
But  it  was  difficult  to  get  satisfactory  terms.  It  is  true  that 
occasionally  the  price  of  "  base  copper  "  rose  considerably,  and 
the  guileless  elders  rejoiced  greatly  at  selling  the  nefarious  wares 
so  highly.  Shrewd  suspicions,  however,  were  quickly  awakened 
that  the  sudden  appreciation  of  copper  was  due  to  the  popular 
demand  for  more  cheap  coins  to  put  once  more  in  the  "  basins  " 
on  Sabbath.  In  this  way  the  base  copper,  the  "  furren  cur- 
reners,"  clipped  English  money,  and  what  not,  which  had  been 
sold  so  satisfactorily  by  the  Session  one  week,  were  retailed  to 

^  In  1704,  Annals  of  Hawick,  by  R.  Wilson. 

2  So  also  Synod  of  Moray ;  Cramond's  Presbytery  of  Fordyce. 

^  Black  Calendar  of  Aberdeen,  p.  24. 

*  1734. — "  Part  of  the  money  being  impassible,  the  elders  think  fit  to  lay  it 
up  till  such  time  as  it  may  pass." — Parish  of  Maryton  or  Old  Montrose,  by 
Fraser,  p.  230. 

VOL.  I  16 


242      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

church-going  customers,  who  replaced  them  frugally  next  week 
in  the  plates  and  ladles. 

When  all  efforts  to  sell  these  eleemosynary  frauds  in  villages 
and  towns  near  had  lamentably  failed,  the  ministers  proceeding 
to  the  General  Assembly  sometimes  had  a  quantity  put  into 
their  saddle  bags  or  wallets  in  order  to  sell  them  to  the  shops 
of  Edinburgh.^  And  should  it  happen  that  a  parishioner  was 
going  over  to  Holland  in  a  bark,  who  had  no  objections  to  take 
a  bundle  of  Dutch  dyots  back  to  their  native  country,  a  store 
was  made  up  and  added  to  his  baggage,  with  directions  to 
buy  with  the  money  goods  which  might  be  serviceable  for 
the  poor.^  Careful  Sessions  at  other  times  utilised  their  worth- 
less coins  to  buy  a  dead-bell  to  announce  funerals,  or  jougs  to 
hold  delinquents ;  but  there  is  a  finer  irony  in  the  expedient 
which  sent  the  base  copper  "  to  be  melted  down  to  make  cups 
for  collecting  the  poor  -  money  at  the  sacrament."  ^  Yet 
another  vexation  met  the  Kirk- Sessions  in  some  districts  of 
Scotland,  and  that  was  the  appearance  in  the  box  of  Irish 
coins  and  trade  tokens,  which  were  also  valueless.  It  was  at 
the  period  when  turners  had  become  rarer  and  dyots  fewer 
that  the  plates  were  infested  with  these  objectionable  pieces  of 
coin  which  the  session  clerks  note  contemptuously  as  "  harps  " 
and  "  Hibernias."  *  As  old  Scots  money  wore  out  in  time,  and 
from  its  curious  rarity  found  its  way  rather  into  numismatic 
collections  of  the  rich  than  into  the  church  collections  for  the 
poor,  "  base  money  "  could  not  be  so  easily  procured  for  use  on 
the  Lord's  Day  and  communions,  and  by  this  inconvenient 
scarcity  the  parishioners  were  reduced  to  honesty.  It  was 
fortunate  that  agricultural  prosperity  had  so  far  raised  the 
scale  of  wages  in  the  country,  and  trade  had  so  far  increased 
earnings  in  towns,  that  the  people  were  able  to  afford  their 
halfpenny  where  formerly  they  had  been  too  poor  to  give 
a  plack. 

There  were,  fortunately,  other  sources  from  which  Kirk- 

1  1739.—"  Sold  of  bad  copper  £35  :  10  for  £5  :  13  :  00."  "  9  lbs.  of  base 
copper  for  4  shillings." — Church  of  Fordyce,  p.  59. 

^  Record  Book  of  Glamis :  Introd. ,  Scot.  Hist.  Society. 

'  Church  of  Cruden,  p.  146. 

*  1739.—"  Sold  9  lbs.  4  oz,  of  Hibernias  and  harps."— C/mrcA  of  Fordyce, 
p.  81. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  243 

Sessions  derived  funds  wherewith  to  relieve  distress  and 
support  the  needy  and  aged — sources  certainly  of  the  most 
incongruous  and  miscellaneous  sorts.  One  of  these  consisted 
of  what  are  variously  termed  "  pledges,"  "  pawns,"  or  "  consigned 
money."  These  were  sums  of  money  left  with  Sessions  by 
persons  intending  to  get  married.  If  the  marriage  promise 
was  broken  the  person  to  blame  forfeited  his  or  her  pledge  for 
the  behoof  of  the  poor;  but  if  the  marriage  came  off  the 
pledge  was  returned  to  the  depositors.  Accordingly,  we  find 
such  entries  in  old  records  as  this  in  1725  :^  "John  Wright 
will  not  stand  to  his  matrimonial  promise ;  his  pledge  is 
forfeited,  being  a  crown,  to  the  poor.  The  woman,  willing  to 
abide  by  her  promise,  has  the  crown  she  has  laid  down  returned." 
But  it  not  unfrequently  occurred  in  those  indigent  days  that 
the  persons  were  so  penniless  that  they  had  no  money  what- 
ever to  deposit ;  in  that  case  they  required  to  leave  in  custody 
some  article  which  was  (at  least  to  them)  of  value.  For 
example,  in  1725  :  "John  Shepheard's  pledge,  consisting  of  a 
sword,  is  confiscated  on  non- performance  of  his  intended 
marriage.  It  is  estimate  at  36  s.  Scots,  and  to  be  sold  to  any 
who  will  buy  it."  At  other  times  there  were  left  as  securities 
for  good  behaviour  such  pieces  of  property  as  a  "  white  plaid," 
a  chair,  a  ring,  a  workman's  tool,  a  few  spoons,  and  little  articles 
of  rustic  jewellery.  Persons  were  also  forced  by  the  stern 
Sessions,  the  rigid  censors  of  morals,  to  come  under  other 
engagements  connected  with  their  wedding,  and  to  leave 
pledges  for  their  fulfilment.  They  were  made  to  promise  that 
they  should  have  no  festivities  or  penny  bridals,  with  their 
"  promiscuous  dancing,"  which  were  then  sources  of  scandal 
and  objects  of  condemnation.  It  was  a  common  order  that 
"whosoever  shall  have  pypers  at  their  wedding  shall  forfeit 
pawns,  and  that  they  shall  not  meet  in  a  change-house  after 
their  wedding  under  the  same  pain."  ^  By  the  frequent 
forfeiture  of  these  pledges — the  pleasure  of  the  bridal  far  out- 
weighing the  pain  of  losing  the  pawn — no  small  addition  was 
made  to  the  revenue  of  each  parish. 

In  other  ways  private  vices  proved  public  benefits.     The 

^  Cramond's  Church  of  Cruden,  p.  145. 
2  Edgar,  ii.  37  ;  Chicrch  of  Cruden,  p.  139i 


244     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

fines  imposed  on  members  of  the  congregation  for  any  fault  or 
misdemeanour — above  all  for  immorality — greatly  supplemented 
the  parochial  funds.^  These  penalties  varied  according  to  the 
frequency  or  the  heinousness  of  the  sin,  and  also  according 
to  the  social  standing  of  the  ofi'enders,  whose  scandal  should  be 
further  expiated  by  appearing  on  the  stool  of  repentance  and 
being  rebuked  from  the  pulpit.  To  escape  this  latter  shame 
and  ordeal  the  higher  classes  commuted  their  penance  into  a 
sum  of  money  to  the  Session,  and  the  laird  was  often  absolved 
in  private  while  the  servant  was  condemned  in  public.  As  the 
century  advanced,  and  decency  and  common  sense  opposed'  the 
open  form  of  penance,  the  practice  of  exacting  money  fines 
became  more  usual,  and  the  funds  of  parishes  were  so  much 
enlarged  that  a  third  or  a  half  of  its  supplies  was  derived 
from  punishment  of  transgressors  of  morality. 

In  early  days  there  were  no  fixed  seats  in  parish  churches, 
and  each  worshipper  required  to  bring  his  stool,  or  "  creepie," 
each  Sunday  with  him,  or  to  leave  it  in  the  kirk,  if  he  did  not 
wish  to  stand  during  the  prolonged  service.  There  grew  up, 
therefore,  the  practice  of  letting  out  seats  for  hire  or  selling 
"  stances "  whereon  to  place  them,  and  the  proceeds  were 
devoted  to  the  support  of  the  poor.^  In  the  early  part  of  the 
century  it  was  only  by  express  permission  of  the  elders  and 
minister  that  a  seat,  or  "  desk,"  could  be  aflixed,  and  even 
when  any  one  erected  a  seat  at  his  own  expense  a  fixed  sum 
or  an  annual  rent  was  exacted.^  If  any  one  left  the  parish 
he  was  entitled  to  take  away  the  seat  that  he  had  "  set  up  " 
for  himself.      In  other  cases  the  Sessions  put  in  seats  and 

^  Penalties  in  Banffshire  :  £4  for  first  offence,  £8  the  second  ;  adultery,  from 
£20  to  £40  Scots  (in  1813  they  were  from  20s.  to  30s.  sterling).  Penalties  in 
Fordyce  between  1701-1714  =  £999  Scots.  No  fines  in  Presbytery  of  Fordyce 
after  1839. — Cramond's  Illegitimacy  in  Banffshire. 

^  1708. — "The  Session  appoints  that  every  pew  shall  pay  to  Session  half  a 
crown  for  the  use  of  the  poor,  and  the  same  be  payd  before  the  seats  be  set  up 
in  the  kirk." — Davidson's  Inverurie,  p.  144.  Lintrathen,  Blairgowrie,  Stat. 
Acct.  Scot.  ;  Parish  of  Cruden,  p.  142. 

^  "  1721. — Put  into  the  box  for  Mr.  Stephen,  the  Session  having  granted 
liberty  to  put  up  a  pew  in  church,  £1,  10s." — Kirriemuir,  Jervoise's  Angus  and 
Mearns,  i.  201.  In  the  previous  century  the  Session  is  enjoined  to  build  a 
"desk"  for  the  minister  of  Monymusk,  but  the  minister  was  himself  required 
to  pay  rent  for  it.— Davidson's  Inverurie,  p.  348. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  245 

forms  out  of  the  funds  of  the  church,  having  come  to  this 
resolution :  "  Whereas  there  is  now  a  great  deal  of  confusion 
and  disorder  in  the  body  of  the  kirk  by  chairs  and  seats,  and 
the  people  be  not  well  accommodate  " — in  such  a  case  it  was 
but  fair  that  they  should  extract  rent  for  behoof  of  the  poor, 
whose  collections  they  had  used  to  seat  the  church. 

There  were  other  sources  from  which  came  accessions  to 
parish  revenues  in  intermittent  streams,  some  of  which  dried 
up  owing  to  changes  of  fashion  in  society.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  century  the  practice  had  originated  amongst  the  Episco- 
palians of  having  private  baptism  and  private  marriage — a 
practice  which,  indeed,  was  forced  upon  them,  seeing  that  the 
sect  was  (up  till  I7l2)  virtually  prohibited  from  having  chapels 
of  their  own.  In  a  short  time  the  ministers  of  the  Church 
found  to  their  intense  annoyance  that  it  was  becoming  fashion- 
able among  the  richer  members  of  their  own  congregations,  and 
finding  that  it  was  both  impossible  and  impolitic  to  resist  the 
mode  too  resolutely  they  exacted  fines.^  These  moneys  went, 
of  course,  to  increase  the  parochial  funds.  Funerals  also 
brought  in  their  supplies  to  relieve  local  poverty.  There  were 
the  "  bell  pennies  " — equal  to  1 2  pennies  Scots — for  tolling  or 
tinkling  the  "  dead-bell "  before  the  coffin  at  funerals ;  there 
was  allowance  for  the  use  of  "  dead-shifts  "  for  the  poor,  and 
the  letting  out  of  mortcloths  to  cover  the  body  if  there  was  no 
"  kist,"  and  to  cover  the  coffin  if  there  was  one,  at  the  rate  of 
one  merk.  This  last  was  a  monopoly  of  the  Session,  and  if 
any  adventurous  tradesman  dared  to  offer  a  mortcloth  at  a 
cheaper  rate  he  was  at  once  pounced  upon,'  and  if  the  offenders 

^  Drymen,  Aug.  1696. — Kirk-Session  ordains  that  "  qnhoever  sends  for  the 
minister  to  marry  or  baptise  out  of  the  church  shall  pay  for  each  marriage  20 
shillings  (Scots),  and  for  each  baptism  10  shillings  tolics  quoties." — G.  Smith's 
Strathendrick,  p.  84.  There  was  good  reason  in  the  case  of  substitution  of 
private  for  public  marriage  to  exact  penalties  to  help  the  poor,  because  on 
occasion  of  weddings  in  kirk  it  was  not  unusual  to  have  collections  for  parish 
funds.     In  Dunblane  : 

1693,  marriage  collections,  £2    5 

1694,  „  „  4  12 

0     9 
0  14 
Scottish  Antiquary,  v.  180. 
-  Greenshield's  Lesmahagoiv,  p.  139  ;  Elgin  Records,  p.  186. 


246     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

refused  to  submit  to  the  Church  the  heritors  were  directed  to 
refuse  a  grave  to  be  dug  except  by  those  who  would  employ 
the  parish  cloth,  which  had  long  ago  changed  its  original 
Genoa  black  for  brown  and  rusty  dinginess. 

All  these  rivulets  to  the  current  of  charity  were  substan- 
tially increased  in  some  fortunate  places  by  a  more  secure  and 
permanent  source;  namely,  by  bequests  or  "mortifications" 
left  by  the  dying  for  the  benefit  of  the  needy  of  their 
native  parish.  These  sums  to  modern  eyes  appear  strangely 
meagre,  although  in  those  frugal  days  they  were  regarded  as 
even  munificent.  In  commemoration  of  the  gift,  and  to-  en- 
courage the  others,  a  black  board  with  white  or  gilt  letters 
recorded  on  the  church  walls  how  "  A.  B.,  residenter,  left  a 
mortification  of  £100  Scots  for  the  poor  of  this  parish";  and 
to  the  gaze  of  successive  generations  of  grateful  worshippers 
(who  afterwards  mistook  invariably  the  humble  £100  Scots 
(£8)  for  the  substantial  £100  sterling)  this  benefaction  was 
fatiguingly  presented ;  and,  unfortunately,  the  keeping  of  this 
memorial  in  thorough  repair  in  time  probably  cost  the  parish 
more  than  the  original  donation  was  worth. 

One  more  parochial  source  of  emolument  deserves  to  be 
mentioned,  as  it  affords  a  glimpse  into  a  curious  phase  of  old 
Scottish  rural  life.  The  Kirk -Session  was  not  merely  the 
almoner  of  the  people — it  was  also  their  pawnbroker  and  their 
money-lender.  In  days  before  the  middle  of  the  century,  when 
agriculture  was  at  its  lowest  stage,  farmers — contending  with  bad 
soil,  bad  crops,  and  bad  seasons — were  in  sore  straits  for  means 
to  tide  over  ill  times.  As  county  banks  were  not  yet  estab- 
lished, and  there  was  no  security  to  offer  them  if  they  had 
been,  tenants  had  recourse  in  their  troubles  to  the  funds  lying 
in  the  Kirk-Session's  hands,  and  from  these  they  were  lent 
small  sums  to  help  them  out  of  their  difficulties  at  moderate 
interest,  giving  bonds  which  were  probably  as  good — but  no 
better — than  their  word.^  When  the  poor-box  underwent  its 
annual  review  there  therefore  appeared  a  motley  assemblage 
of  contents ;  besides  good  and  bad  copper  there  were  bills  and 
acceptances  of  all  kinds.  In  one  parish  in  1/27  the  elders, 
after  ransacking  the  box,  record  that  "  there  were  in  the  poor- 
1  Grossarfs  Parish  of  Shotts ;  Parton,  Stat.  Acct.  Scot.  ii.  187. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  247 

box  two  bills  and  three  bonds  amounting  to  £84  Scots,  and  in 
money,  black  and  white,  £71."  Next  year,  "there  is  a  bond 
of  200  merks,  bills  for  115  merks,  a  bill  for  39  pounds,  another 
for  15  pounds.  In  ready  money  142  pounds,  also  a  box  of 
doyts  and  bad  money  47  pounds,  which  exchanged  for  24 
pounds."  Not  always  were  these  money-lending  transactions 
successful  or  safe,  and  the  misplaced  confidence  of  friendly 
elders  in  their  poorer  neighbours,  and  perhaps  relatives, 
occasionally  sadly  impaired  the  finances  of  the  parish.  In 
their  anxiety  to  get  funds  there  was  no  expedient  to  which 
they  hesitated  to  resort  in  some  parishes — whether  to  keep 
milch  cows  for  loan,  or  to  let  out  the  communion  tables  to 
form  stalls  for  huxters  at  a  fair.^ 


Ill 

In  the  first  half  of  the  century  paupers  were  allowed 
Is.  6d.  to  2s.  a  month — an  allowance  which  rose  to  3s.  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  century ;  and  usually  this  aid  they  were 
permitted  to  supplement  by  begging  from  door  to  door.  In 
parishes  having  a  population  of  about  2000  the  whole  annual 
funds  at  the  disposal  of  the  Session  would  amount  to  £12  or 
£13  sterling.^  Smaller  parishes,  again,  where  weekly  collec- 
tions did  not  exceed  6d.  or  Is.,  were  able,  with  the  help  of 
fees  for  the  use  of  a  mortcloth,  "  so  ragged  that  nobody  will 
use  it,"  to  support  their  pensioners  even  at  the  end  of  the 
century. 

The  casual  doles  which  fell  from  the  hands  of  the  Session 
went  to  meet  the  most  extraordinary  variety  of  claims  from 
the  parishioners  of  olden  days,  as  specified  in  the  venerable 
records  with  quaint  phrasing  and  unhumorous  minuteness : 
"  To  a  woman  who  has  had  nine  children  at  three  births  is 
given  6d."  ;  '  "  to  a  Paisley  bodie  called  Finlay,  4d."  ;  to  a  man 
"  to   help    to   pay  his   coffin,  £2,   8s."      There   came   for  aid 

^  Parish  of  Carluke,  p.  266.  "July  1718. — It  is  appointed  that  none  of  the 
communion  tables  be  lent  out  at  fairs." — Paterson's  Hist,  of  Ayrshire,  ii.  128. 

-  Hawick  in  1727  had  £14  of  yearly  funds. — Annals  of  Hawick,  Edgar,  ii. 
59.     Stat.  Acet.,  Alloa,  viii.,  Parton  ;  Campbell's  ^aZmerino,  p.  240. 

"  Cramond's  Cliurck  of  Ilatliven  ;  Edgar,  ii.  169. 


2  48      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

parishioners  who  were  sickly,  and  required  help  to  travel  to 
the  favourite  cures  of  the  time,  to  drink  the  goat's  milk  in  the 
Highlands,  or  to  drink  the  waters  at  Moffat  wells.  Thereupon 
was  handed  to  a  parishioner  "  troubled  with  a  tympany,  to  help 
to  pay  his  charges  to  going  to  Moffat  wells  for  cure,  £3  Scots."  ^ 
Every  burden  falls  upon  the  Session.  If  the  school  needs 
repair  it  is  applied  to,  and  there  is  "  given  for  thacking  the 
school,  £1,  4s."  If  there  is  found  dead  a  vagrant,  or  some 
poor  traveller,  on  the  roadside,  it  has  to  disburse  (1703)  :  "To 
pay  for  coffin  to  a  poor  little  one  who  was  a  stranger,  6s.  8d. 
Scots";  "for  a  chest  to  a  poor  stranger,  £1.""  Such  small 
sums  as  these — only  6^d.  for  the  vagrant  child's  coffin,  only 
Is.  8d.  for  the  stranger's  "chest" — show  the  spareness  of  the 
funeral  expenses ;  and  even  the  larger  sums  of  2  s.  and  3  s.  6d. 
for  chests  for  poor  parishioners  testify  to  the  painful  frugality 
which  the  poverty  of  the  times  required.  But  in  many  places 
even  this  expense  was  not  displayed,  and  in  the  early  part  of 
the  century  for  the  poorer  people  a  "  parish  chest "  was  often 
used,  in  which  bodies  were  borne  to  the  grave,  and  buried  only 
in  their  winding-sheet  or  "  dead-shift."  ^  When  the  chest  was 
half  way  down  the  bolts  were  withdrawn  to  let  the  bottom 
fall  open,  and  the  corpse  fell  with  a  thud  to  the  ground  in 
the  shallow  grave.  Yet  in  spite  of  this  rigid  economy  we  find 
allowances  given  for  funereal  purposes  which  seem  hardly 
becoming  the  stern  and  austere  spirit  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  of  that  era,  however  thoroughly  they  may  have 
been  in  accordance  with  the  customs  of  the  people.  We  read 
how,  conceding  to  these  customs  of  the  day,  a  Kirk-Session 
has  given  to  a  pauper's  burial  "for  ale,  31s.,  and  for  tobacco 
and  pipes  to  the  said  burial,  15s.  6d.  Scots." 

^  Guthrie-Smith's  Strathendrick,  p.  70  ;  Parish  of  Shotts,  p.  46. 

^  1722. — Kirriemuir. — Jervoise's  Memorials  of  Angus  and  Mcarns,  i.  330. 

'  1701. — "The  Session  of  Rothesay  desiderates  yet  the  want  of  ane  engyne 
to  convey  the  coffin  conventlie  to  the  grave  with  the  corps.  Therefore  they 
appointed  John  M'Neill,  thesaurer,  to  agree  with  the  smith  to  make  and  join 
to  the  said  chest  a  loose  iron  cleek  fit  for  receiving  a  man's  hand  at  everie  end, 
and  appoints  the  same  chest  when  finished  to  be  recommended  to  the  kirk 
officer  ;  and  he  is  strictly  appointed  to  take  particular  care  that  the  said  chest 
when  used  be  no  way  damnified." — Hewison's  ^M<e,  ii.  288.  In  1780  paupers 
tlius  buried  in  Hawick. — Wilson's  Hawick,  p.  168  ;  Campbell's  Balmerino, 
p.  234. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  249 

It  would  be  unjust  to  these  bygone  days  and  long- 
departed  generations  to  suppose  that  their  whole  interest  was 
devoted  to  preserving  their  charity  for  their  own  folk,  and  all 
their  energy  was  devoted  to  turning  other  claimants  away. 
That  this  was  not  the  fact  is  abundantly  shown  by  the  old 
records  of  the  period,  which  prove  that  though  their  means 
were  small  their  hearts  were  very  kindly.  The  very  items 
inserted  in  the  minutes,  with  their  queer  phraseology  and 
quaint  penmanship,  bring  up  before  us  a  vivid  picture  of  the 
time  and  its  simple  ways.  Curious  claims  were  made  at  kirk 
doors  upon  these  ministers  and  elders,  as  they,  after  prayer, 
stood  waiting  to  attend  to  the  various  cases  in  turn.  It  may 
be  a  shipwrecked  sailor  wandering  to  his  home  in  rags,  and 
the  case  being  duly  considered  and  relieved,  the  clerk  writes 
down  :  1734 — "To  a  dispersed  seaman,  a  groat."  Poor  High- 
land students  were  not  seldom  trying  to  get  their  way  on  foot 
to  the  universities,  carrying,  perhaps,  their  bag  of  oatmeal  and 
satchel  of  books  slung  over  their  shoulders ;  and  these  met 
ready  attention  "  ;  -^  and  the  clerk  pens  his  items  :  "  To  a  blind 
student  that  hath  the  Irish  (Gaelic)  language,  3d." ;  "  to  three 
poor  students  going  to  the  college,  a  merk."  In  the  crowd 
seeking  help,  when  on  sacramental  Mondays  the  doles  were  dis- 
tributed, might  be  found  swarthy-faced,  strangely  clad  foreign 
seamen,  who  tried  to  make  their  wants  understood  by  the 
elders  unacquainted  with  any  tongue  save  their  own,  and  the 
clerk  with  a  bold  guess  enters  the  dole  to  "  four  Portuguese 
or  Spanish  shipwrecked  sailors,  8  s."  Other  foreigners  pass 
through  the  country,  and  in  hapless  plight  came  before  the 
Session.  Now  it  is  a  "  poor  merchant,"  a  "  persecuted 
Polonian,"  or  "  a  converted  Mahometan,"  "  a  professor  of 
tongues  fled  from  France." "  Among  the  jostling,  noisy 
claimants  would  be  many  who  were  crippled,  imbecile,  and 
deformed  and  diseased — evidence  of  days  of  poverty  and  dirt 
in  filthy,  squalid  homes — numerous  as  the  lazzaroni  who 
swarm  in  the  streets  and  at  the  church  porches  of  Spanish 
and  Italian  cities  to-day ;  and  disbursements  to  such  unsightly 
beggars  are  faithfully  written  down :    "  To  a  great  object,  a 

^  Church  of  Rathven,  p.  47. 
"^  Upper  Dccside,  p.  105  ;  Phillijt's  Parish  of  Long/organ,  p.  188. 


250     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

groat,"  to  "  extraneous  strangers  "  and  "  distressed  supplicant."  ^ 
One  of  the  most  striking  cases  of  charity  were  persons  who 
professed  themselves  escaped  slaves  from  the  Turks.  For 
more  than  two  hundred  years  the  pest  of  the  Mediterranean 
had  been  the  corsairs  of  Barbary.  These  pirates  swooped  down 
on  every  defenceless  brig  that  they  could  descry,  plundered  the 
ships,  and  carried  the  crews  and  passengers  into  slavery. 
They  were  the  terror  of  the  seas,  and  the  one  object  of  dread 
to  those  who  sailed  by  the  coasts  of  Africa.  Scottish  ships 
not  a  few  set  sail  every  year  laden  with  their  goods — hides, 
tallow,  serges — for  export,  intending  to  return  by  Spain 
with  cargoes  of  oranges  and  wine  after  a  two  years'  coasting 
trade  in  the  southern  ports.  It  was  during  these  perilous 
two  years  that  many  found  their  fate,  and  were  sold  as  slaves 
to  merchants,  or  chained  to  the  oars  in  the  galleys.  The 
people  at  home  were  pitiful  to  these  poor  prisoners — partly 
because  of  the  cruelty  they  suffered,  partly  and  chiefly  because 
of  their  being  Christians  subjected  to  Mahometan  tyranny. 
Collections  were  made  often  in  churches  to  ransom  these 
Christian  slaves,  and  many  who  escaped  returned  in  abject 
poverty  to  their  own  shores.  Not  seldom  these  poor  men  in 
rags  appeared  at  the  kirk  door  as  they  journeyed,  after  long 
years  of  captivity,  on  the  way  home  seeking  help,  and  would 
point  with  their  fingers  to  their  speechless  mouths  to  show 
that  they  had  had  their  tongues  cut  out  by  inhuman  masters.' 
These  never  failed  to  enlist  lively  interest,  and  the  entries  are 
exceedingly  common  of  aid  given:  "To  a  poor  seaman  all 
mangled  by  the  Turks  " ;  "  to  four  men  barbarously  ill-treated 
by  the  Moors  " ;  "  to  a  seaman  with  his  tongue  cut  out  by  the 
Moors  of  Barbary."^  It  might  happen  occasionally  that  the 
Sessions  had  their  suspicions  whether  the  professed  escaped 
slaves  were  genuine  or  not,  but  they  were  obviously  unwilling 
to  give  them  the  disadvantage  of  a  doubt — and  therefore  help 
was  given  and  due  entry  made :  "  Given  to  two  poor  men  said 

^  1734. — Cramond's  Church  of  Hathven. 

"  "1723.— Given  to  distressed  seaman  who  had  his  tongue  cut  out  by  the 
Turks,  2s.  lOd."— Kirk-Session  of  Eathve7i.  "1726.— To  dumb  man  who  had 
his  tongue  cut  out  by  tlie  Algerians,  Ss."—Kirk-Sessio7i  of  Fordyce. 

3  Kirk  -  Session  of  Fordyce,  1734  ;  Oathlaw,  1738  ;  Fordyce,  IT^Z.— Scots 
Antiqiiary,  p.  183;  1897. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  251 

to  have  beeu  in  Turkish  slavery,  3d."  ^  Doubtless  they  were 
often  imposed  upon  by  "  sailors "  wrecked  in  ships  that  had 
never  sailed  the  sea ;  by  "  Christian  captives  "  who  had  been 
slaves  on  shores  they  had  never  seen. 

Another  form  of  distress  peculiar  to  the  early  years  of  the 
century,  which  has  a  pathetic  interest,  is  chronicled  in  the 
Session  records  of  the  period  with  painful  frequency.     That 
was  the  abject  poverty  into  which  some  families  of  Episcopal 
ministers   were   thrown   when   they   were    cast    out   of  their 
manses,  at  the  time  that  Presbyterianism  was  re-established. 
It  is  impossible  to  follow  the  careers  of  those  who  were  cast 
adrift  to  seek  a  scanty  livelihood,  which  would  keep  soul  and 
body  together  in  those  days  when  trades  were  few  and  money 
was   scarce.     The   humiliating   straits   of   some   are   revealed 
by  entries  like  the  following:  "1721,  Sep.  2. — Given  to  ane 
Episcopalian  minister,  £1,  16s.  Scots";  "  Given  to  another,  18s. 
Scots  " ;  "  Given  to  Episcopalian  minister's  wife  and  children, 
6s.  Scots."  ^     Such  significant  accounts  give  a  glimpse  of  a 
sad  phase  of  old  Scottish  life — the  poor  "  outed  "  Episcopal 
minister  without  congregation   or  stipend,  or  even  means  to 
procure  sufficient  food  and  clothing,  forced  to  crave  help  from 
Presbyterian  elders,  who  dourly  gave  a  dole  to  the  "  curate  "  as 
to  one  tainted  with  the  curse  of  Prelacy,  and  sometimes  refused 
it  on  the  ground  that  he  "  did  not  attend  ordinances."     Among 
the  many  claimants  in  the  beginning  of  the  century  are  found 
men  of   good   rank  and   birth   reduced   by   the   poverty   and 
reverses  of  fortune  in  those  days  when  a  very  narrow  margin 
of  means  lay  between  the  incomes  of  impecunious  lairds  and 
farmers  and  absolute  penury.      The  doles  were  not  infrequently 
the  sum  of  a  groat  or  merk  to  persons  denominated  in  the 
records   "  strange    gentlemen,"  "  poor  gentlemen,"  "  distressed 
gentlemen,"  while  "  a  gentleman  recommended  by  a  nobleman  " 
receives  only   Gd.  Scots.'^     It  was  in  those  days  that  many 
small  farmers  and  tradesmen  who  had  fallen  into  need  were 
enrolled  in  the  list  of  "  gentle   beggars,"  and   if  their  names 

1  Ch.  of  Cullen. 

^  Notices  of  Carluke,  p.  78  ;  Stat.  Accl.,  Inverarity. 

^  G.  Smith's   Strathhlann  ;   Stat.  Acd.,  Inverarity,   Killcarn  :    "1703. — To 
Robert  Luiiiiox,  a  poor  geiitlemeu  8s.,  Scots." — Strut/tend  rick,  p.  66. 


252      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

seldom  appear  in  the  Kirk-Session  books  it  is  because  they 
were  privileged  to  beg  alms  at  any  house. 

Besides  these  distributions  of  money  to  persons  who  came 
before  them,  congregations  also  made  special  collections  for 
purposes  which  we  might  imagine  of  remote  interest  and  vague 
meaning  to  a  people  whose  knowledge  of  the  foreign  world  was 
scanty  indeed.  There  are  collections  (1 7  3 1)  for  "  the  distressed 
Protestant  city  of  Eeddan  in  Poland "  (of  which  town  and 
population  the  congregation  must  have  cared  little  and  known 
nothing)  ;  ^  "  for  the  distressed  paroche  (Presbyterian)  of  New 
York  in  America  "  ;  "  for  the  poor  German  Church  in  London." 
These  purposes  awakened  little  interest  compared  with  collec- 
tions "  for  living  slaves  in  Algiers " ;  for  "  Simpson  and  his 
trew  slaves  in  Algiers."" 

It  is  pleasant  to  think  of  rural  folk  thus  being  awakened 
out  of  their  dull  life  in  the  bleak  moorlands  on  "  Sabbath " 
mornings,  and  their  sympathies  aroused  for  distress  and  danger 
far  beyond  their  doors,  away  to  lands  unfamiliar  beyond  the 
seas,  full  of  mystery  and  romance  to  their  Christian  imagina- 
tions. 

There  are  other  demands  on  the  charity  which  have  not 
the  merit  of  possessing  any  emotional  element  or  any  picturesque 
associations — contributions  requested  of  the  people  which  appear 
utterly  unwarranted ;  for  repairing  bridges  over  distant  rivers, 
steeples  of  churches  and  town  halls  which  they  would  never 
see,  piers  and  harbours  they  would  never  use.  It  is  difficult 
to  understand  why  in  1704  the  not  too  wealthy  labourers  of 
Drumoak  in  Upper  Deeside  should  have  a  collection  called 
from  them  to  mend  the  harbour  of  Kinghorn  in  Pifeshire  ^  (the 
contributions  in  this  case  amount  only  to  14s.  Scots),  or  why  on 
another  occasion  they  should  be  mulcted  to  put  to  rights  the 
steeple  of  the  burgh  of  Tain,  which  only  extracts  from  them 
lis.  Scots.  Equally  puzzling  is  it  to  see  why  needy  farmers  in 
Strathblane  church,  in  Stirlingshire,  should  contribute  for  the 
pier  in  St.  Andrews ;    and  the  congregation  of    Inveresk,  in 

^  Guthrie-Smith's  Strathblane,  p.  216. 

2  Cami)beirs  Balmerino,  p.  234  ;  Gh.  of  Cruden,  p.  216.  Collection  at 
Killearn,  1695:  "To  relieve  some  slaves  that  are  in  Barbary,  £1  Scots." — G. 
S.,  StrathendricJc,  p.  66. 

^  Ui^per  Deeside,  by  Henderson,  p.  105. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  253 

Midlothian/  should  be  made  to  subscribe  to  a  harbour  in 
Girvan.  Still  more  difficult  is  it  to  comprehend  why  this 
should  be  enjoined  on  all  churches  by  order  of  the  General 
Assembly.'^  These  public  calls  were  very  frequent,  and  pressed 
hard  on  poor  people  in  sore  straits  for  food  for  their  families ; 
and  they  reveal  the  prevailing  poverty  of  the  times — towns 
being  too  small  and  destitute  of  trade  to  carry  out  local  repairs 
at  their  own  charges,  and  landowners  having  too  little  means 
or  enterprise  of  their  own  to  repair  a  county  bridge.  But 
they  were  burdens  that  did  not  move  the  Christian  conscience 
to  liberality,  and  made  the  folk  murmur.^ 

Instead  of  being  scornful  at  the  petty  sums  gathered  and 
dealt  out  in  charity,  we  may  rather  admire  the  generosity  of 
the  people,  when  we  consider  the  narrow  circumstances  and 
wretched  condition  of  their  life.  The  tenants  of  farms,  paying 
for  their  little  "paffles"  of  miserable  land  some  £8  or  £12 
yearly  rent,  had  little  to  spare ;  still  less  had  the  ploughman, 
who  up  to  the  middle  of  the  century  had  only  fourpence  a 
week  in  money  if  he  were  unmarried,  and  if  he  were  married 
had  to  feed,  clothe,  and  educate  a  family  on  earnings  equal 
only  to  £7  or  £8  a  year,  of  which  all  but  £1  or  £2  was 
paid  in  oat  or  barley  meal.  Even  the  blacksmith,  carpenter, 
the  weaver,  had  little  money  in  their  store,  and  in  despair 
forced  to  give  doits  or  bad  copper  in  the  "  brods  "  to  keep  up 
their  respectability,  for  they  earned  only  6d.  a  day,  and  even, 
that  sum  was  often  mainly  paid  by  their  employers  in  "  kind." 
Yet  the  people  were  hospitable  to  their  (if  possible)  poorer 
neighbours — ready  to  give  the  beggars  and  passers  by  a  share 

^  G.  Smith's  Strathblane,  p.  216;  InveresJc,  by  Lang.  "Killearn,  1695. — 
Gathered  for  building  a  harbour  at  Kiukell,  £1,  10s. ;  1700 — To  help  Lanark 
Bridge,  10s." — Strathendrick,  p.  66. 

^  "  1697,  Aug.  15. — Killearn,  according  to  Act  of  Commission  of  Assembly, 
authorised  by  Lords  of  Privy  Councill,  enjoyning  a  generall  collection  and  vol- 
untarie  contribution  throughout  the  kingdom  for  building  a  church  at  Konigs- 
bergo  in  Prussia,  this  to  be  done  cither  at  the  church  door  or  by  elders  through 
their  several  districts." — G.  Smith's  Strathendrick,  p.  6G. 

3  '  •  The  straits  of  this  country  is  so  great, "  wrote  Wodrow,  ' '  thro'  the  want  of 
victual  that  our  collections  are  very  far  from  maintaining  our  poor,  and  the 
people  are  in  a  great  pet  with  collections  for  bridges,  tolbooths,  etc.,  that  when 
a  collection  is  intimate  they  are  sure  to  give  less  than  their  ordinary." — Analeda 
Scotica,  ii. 


254     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 


of  their  dinner  of  broth,  a  handful  of  oatmeal  in  their  bags,  or 
shelter  by  the  peat  fire  at  night.  In  the  north-eastern 
counties  the  iron  handles  which  held  the  fir-stick  candles  were 
long  known  as  the  "  poor  man,"  ^  because  the  beggar  for  his 
food  and  roof  assisted  the  good  wife  by  holding  for  her  the 
candle  at  night  when  she  was  busy  at  her  household  work  in 
the  dingy  but  kindly  cottage. 

Meagre  as  the  doles  of  charity  seem  to  us,  they  were  really 
munificent  in  proportion  to  the  style  of  living  of  the  working 
classes  and  to  the  earnings  of  the  period ;  and  they  therefore 
were  received  without  a  grudge  by  the  claimants.  Only  is 
there  complaint  and  muttering  when  a  Eark- Session,  with  no 
resources  left  except  base  brass,  is  obliged  to  give  as  alms 
coins  which  were  "  impassible." "  Even  past  the  middle  of  the 
century,  when  money  was  less  scarce  and  wages  were  higher, 
Kirk-Sessions  had  to  study  strictest  economy,  and  issued  their 
aid  in  the  smallest  coins  of  the  realm.  In  frugal  Morayshire 
ministers  were  unwilling  to  face  the  extravagance  of  giving  the 
large  sum  of  one  halfpenny  to  each  claimant,  and  found  a  con- 
venient compromise  between  the  old  Scots  money  and  the  new 
English  ^  in  the  form  of  farthings  which  made  the  parish  funds 
go  much  farther.  But  these  coins  were  rare  in  Scotland,  and 
the  Synod  got  at  various  times  large  quantities  from  the  mint 
of  London  for  distribution  amongst  the  various  Sessions  within 
its  bounds,  in  their  economical  doles,  until  they  could  get  no 
more  supplies.  This  action  on  the  part  of  ministers  was,  after 
all,  not  the  most  politic ;  for  it  is  certain  that  the  farthings 
doled  out  to  the  poor  quickly  found  their  way  back  to  the  plates 
on  Sundays  as  naturally  as  rivers  find  their  course  to  the  sea. 

^  Rampini's  Morayshire. 

2  "  Poor  woman  complains  that  brass  money  in  last  distribution  was  doitts 
of  little  or  no  use  to  her." — Maryton,  by  Fraser,  p.  230. 

^  "  1753. — It  was  moved  that  as  the  good  effect  of  bringing  the  last  quantity 
of  farthings  from  the  mint  of  London  was  sensibly  felt  throughout  the  whole 
country,  and  has  in  a  particular  manner  been  beneficial  to  the  poor,  that,  there- 
fore, some  person  should  be  again  employed  to  bring  down  to  the  amount  of  £500 
for  use  of  the  Kirk-Sessions  within  the  Synod."  In  1763,  "  The  Synod,  consider- 
ing the  poor  have  suffered  from  the  scarcity  of  farthings,  recommend  members  to 
get  £100  of  tlie  same  down."  In  1766,  when  a  further  application  had  been 
made,  a  letter  from  London  announces  :  "  No  farthings  are  to  be  got,  and  none 
are  to  be  coined  for  some  years." — Presbytery  of  Fordyce,  by  Cramond. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  255 


IV 

After  the  middle  of  the  century  the  progress  of  agriculture, 
the  development  of  trade,  the  rise  of  manufactures  of  all  kinds 
— linen  work  especially — were  working  a  social  revolution  in 
the  country.  The  old  stagnation  of  industrial  life  disappeared, 
the  lethargy  which  had  been  painfully  characteristic  of  the  whole 
community  vanished  throughout  the  Lowlands ;  the  state  of 
abject  poverty,  which  had  come  from  lack  of  food,  lack  of 
work,  lack  of  wages,  passed  away,  as  new  methods  of  farming 
made  the  land  fertile — as  new  occupations  employed  every  hand, 
and  demand  for  labour  brought  higher  earnings  to  every  class 
of  the  poor.  If  it  happened  that  the  price  of  living  rose 
so  high  that  the  meagre  doles  were  no  longer  sufficient  to 
keep  soul  and  body  together,  it  also  happened  that  there 
were  far  fewer  poor  who  needed  help  in  rural  districts, 
and  the  swarming  beggars  who  had  no  excuse  for  idleness  were 
obliged  to  disappear  or  join  the  ranks  of  labour.  It  was  in 
the  large  towns  that  poverty  began  to  be  felt — the  waifs,  the 
weak,  the  old,  the  loafers,  who  amidst  the  energy  of  work  all 
around,  were  to  form  a  pauper  class  in  the  towns  as  they 
increased  in  population. 

It  might  naturally  be  supposed  that  as  this  development 
in  trade  and  industry  proceeded,  that  the  funds  at  the  disposal 
of  the  churches  would  increase  in  proportion,  and  that  larger 
contributions  would  meet  amply  the  needs  of  a  growing 
population.  There  were  many  circumstances  which  prevented 
the  realising  of  such  a  natural  expectation.  One  of  these  was 
the  origin  and  increase  of  dissent  in  the  land.  Presbyterian 
dissent  had  arisen  in  1737,  but  the  effect  of  that  on  the 
resources  for  the  poor  was  not  much  felt  till  some  time  after 
the  middle  of  the  century,  when  the  numbers  of  the  Seceders 
had  become  very  considerable  throughout  the  country.^  By 
that  time  the  loss  of  these  sturdy  Christians  to  the  Kirk 
seriously  affected  the  amount  of  church  collections,  and  what 
made  it  the  more  aggravating  to  the  Kirk-Session  was  the 
fact  that  these  dissenters  themselves,  when  they  became  old, 

'  Moncreiffs  Life  of  Dr.  Erskine,  p.  468  ;  Stat.  Acct.,  Old  Kilpatrick. 


256     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

infirm,  or  sick,  had  no  hesitation  whatever  in  demanding  rehef 
from  those  funds  to  which  they  and  their  co-religionists  had 
never  contributed,  and  which  their  absence  from,  the  kirk  had 
done  much  to  reduce.  Besides  that,  fines  in  commutation 
of  discipline,  fees  for  certificates  of  marriage  and  baptism,  were 
now  intercepted  by  the  Sessions  of  dissenting  bodies,  such  as 
Original  Seceders,  Episcopalians,  and  Eelief  Kirk,  This  matter 
was  a  source  of  incessant  parochial  irritation,  and  added 
intensity  to  sectarian  bitterness.  Yet  another  cause  which 
lessened  the  contents  of  the  poor-box  was  the  increase  of 
absenteeism  on  the  part  of  proprietors.  Of  old  they  had  lived 
in  their  country  houses,  and  in  spite  of  the  straitness  of  their 
rents  their  care  of  the  people  had  been  kindly,  and  their 
intercourse  with  them  had  been  intimate.  Gradually  more 
and  more  landowners  resorted,  with  the  growing  incomes 
which  "  good  times "  brought,  to  Edinburgh,  or  London  for 
months,  and  the  poor-box  got  emptier.  Many  had  adopted 
the  Episcopal  form  of  dissent,  deserted  the  parish  church  in 
towns,  and  left  the  burgesses  to  look  after  the  poor.  As  the 
country  grew  older  a  change  also  came  over  the  religious 
habits  of  many  classes  in  society — the  old-fashioned  austerity 
relaxed,  and  so  likewise  did  the  church-going  ways — men  of 
fashion  and  quality  were  conspicuous  for  their  absence  in  kirk, 
where  their  fathers  had  been  as  conspicuous  by  their  presence,^ 
and  the  weekly  collections  for  the  poor  in  consequence  grew 
less.  In  many  a  parish  where  one  or  two  large  proprietors 
owned  the  land,  and  these  were  either  absent  from  the  estate 
or  absent  from  the  church,  they  might  not  contribute  a  shilling 
to  the  poor  on  their  own  ground  while  drawing  the  rents  from 
the  whole  parish.  By  all  such  circumstances  more  and  more 
the  burdens  were  left  to  be  borne  by  the  less  well-to-do — the 
churchmen  had  to  keep  the  dissenters ;  the  tenants  had  to  re- 
lieve the  servants  of  the  landlord,  and  according  to  the  common 
saying  in  Scotland,  it  was  the  poor  who  maintained  the  poor.^ 

^  "One  cause  of  decrease  in  funds  for  poor  is  that  men  of  rank  and  fortune  are 
very  irregular  and  even  criminally  neglective  in  their  attendance  on  divine  service 
on  the  Sabbath." — Stat.  Acct.,  Kilwinning,  ii.  167  ;  Chambers'  Picf.  of  Scotland. 

^  "To  my  certain  knowledge  the  heritors  in  certain  parishes  do  little  more 
than  defray  the  tenth  part  of  contributions  to  the  poor." — Farmer's  Mag.  Nov. 
1804. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  241 

the  church  door  on  the  sacramental  Monday)  were  condemned 
by  ecclesiastical  courts ;  but  rebukes  and  threats  of  ministers 
were  disregarded.  In  vain  did  Kirk-Sessions  "desire  their 
minister  to  exhort  the  people  not  to  mock  God  by  casting  into 
the  offering  dyots  and  other  money  that  is  not  current."  ^  In 
vain  did  the  Synod  of  Aberdeen  in  1755  appoint  its  moderator 
"  to  talk  with  the  officers  of  custom  to  do  what  they  could 
to  prevent  the  importation  of  base  coin.""  Yet  all  these 
charges  sink  into  insignificance  before  the  accusation,  that 
country  people  in  Aberdeenshire  were  in  the  practice  of  putting 
into  the  plate  bad  halfpence  and  of  taking  out  good  ones.^ 
The  church  collections  were  invaluable  receptacles  for  useless 
coin';  and  it  is  significant  that  after  the  poor-box  at  Old  Machar 
had  been  broken  into  and  the  contents  stolen,  the  burglar  boy 
was  at  once  detected  by  the  simple  fact  that  in  playing  cards 
with  his  comrades  he  had  nothing  to  stake  save  bodies,  doyts, 
and  bad  halfpennies.  These  could  have  come  from  no  shop,  for 
merchants  were  too  cautious  to  take  them ;  the  conclusion  was 
inevitable  that  they  came  from  the  poor-box,  where  alone  people 
had  the  conscience  and  courage  to  put  them. 

As  in  some  churches  there  were  two  bad  coins  for  every 
three  good  ones,  the  serious  problem  yearly  arose  in  every 
parish,  how  to  dispose  of  them  ?  Owing  to  the  glut  in  the 
market,  the  elders  who  were  appointed  to  seU  their  ill  money 
"  went  to  the  various  smiths  to  see  what  they  can  get."  * 
But  it  was  difficult  to  get  satisfactory  terms.  It  is  true  that 
occasionally  the  price  of  "  base  copper  "  rose  considerably,  and 
the  guileless  elders  rejoiced  greatly  at  selling  the  nefarious  wares 
so  highly.  Shrewd  suspicions,  however,  were  quickly  awakened 
that  the  sudden  appreciation  of  copper  was  due  to  the  popular 
demand  for  more  cheap  coins  to  put  once  more  in  the  "  basins  " 
on  Sabbath.  In  this  way  the  base  copper,  the  "  furren  cur- 
reners,"  clipped  English  money,  and  what  not,  which  had  been 
sold  so  satisfactorily  by  the  Session  one  week,  were  retailed  to 

^  In  1704,  Annals  of  Hawick,  by  R.  Wilson. 

'  So  also  Synod  of  Moray ;  Cramond's  Presbytery  of  Fordyce. 

3  Black  Calendar  of  Aberdeen,  p.  24. 

■•  1734. — "  Part  of  the  money  being  impassible,  the  elders  think  fit  to  lay  it 
up  till  such  time  as  it  may  pass." — Parish  of  Maryton  or  Old  Montrose,  by 
Fraser,  p.  230. 

VOL.  I  16 


242     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

church-going  customers,  who  replaced  them  frugally  next  week 
in  the  plates  and  ladles. 

When  all  efforts  to  sell  these  eleemosynary  frauds  in  villages 
and  towns  near  had  lamentably  failed,  the  ministers  proceeding 
to  the  General  Assembly  sometimes  had  a  quantity  put  into 
their  saddle  bags  or  wallets  in  order  to  sell  them  to  the  shops 
of  Edinburgh.^  And  should  it  happen  that  a  parishioner  was 
going  over  to  Holland  in  a  bark,  who  had  no  objections  to  take 
a  bundle  of  Dutch  dyots  back  to  their  native  country,  a  store 
was  made  up  and  added  to  his  baggage,  with  directions  to 
buy  with  the  money  goods  which  might  be  serviceable  for 
the  poor.^  Careful  Sessions  at  other  times  utilised  their  worth- 
less coins  to  buy  a  dead-bell  to  announce  funerals,  or  jougs  to 
hold  delinquents ;  but  there  is  a  finer  irony  in  the  expedient 
which  sent  the  base  copper  "  to  be  melted  down  to  make  cups 
for  collecting  the  poor  -  money  at  the  sacrament,"  ^  Yet 
another  vexation  met  the  Kirk-Sessions  in  some  districts  of 
Scotland,  and  that  was  the  appearance  in  the  box  of  Irish 
coins  and  trade  tokens,  which  were  also  valueless.  It  was  at 
the  period  when  turners  had  become  rarer  and  dyots  fewer 
that  the  plates  were  infested  with  these  objectionable  pieces  of 
coin  which  the  session  clerks  note  contemptuously  as  "  harps  " 
and  "  Hibernias."  ^  As  old  Scots  money  wore  out  in  time,  and 
from  its  curious  rarity  found  its  way  rather  into  numismatic 
collections  of  the  rich  than  into  the  church  collections  for  the 
poor,  "  base  money  "  could  not  be  so  easily  procured  for  use  on 
the  Lord's  Day  and  communions,  and  by  this  inconvenient 
scarcity  the  parishioners  were  reduced  to  honesty.  It  was 
fortunate  that  agricultural  prosperity  had  so  far  raised  the 
scale  of  wages  in  the  country,  and  trade  had  so  far  increased 
earnings  in  towns,  that  the  people  were  able  to  afford  their 
halfpenny  where  formerly  they  had  been  too  poor  to  give 
a  plack. 

There  were,  fortunately,  other  sources  from  which  Kirk- 

1  1739.— "  Sold  of  bad  copper  £35  :  10  for  £5  :  13  :  00."  "  9  lbs,  of  base 
copper  for  4  shillings." — Church  of  Fordyce,  p.  59. 

^  Record  Book  of  Glamis :  Introd, ,  Scot.  Hist.  Society. 

'  Church  of  Cruden,  p.  146. 

*  1739. — "  Sold  9  lbs.  4  oz.  of  Hibernias  and  harps." — Church  of  Fordyce, 
p.  81. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  243 

Sessions  derived  funds  wherewith  to  reheve  distress  and 
support  the  needy  and  aged — sources  certainly  of  the  most 
incongruous  and  miscellaneous  sorts.  One  of  these  consisted 
of  what  are  variously  termed  "  pledges,"  "  pawns,"  or  "  consigned 
money."  These  were  sums  of  money  left  with  Sessions  by 
persons  intending  to  get  married.  If  the  marriage  promise 
was  broken  the  person  to  blame  forfeited  his  or  her  pledge  for 
the  behoof  of  the  poor ;  but  if  the  marriage  came  off  the 
pledge  was  returned  to  the  depositors.  Accordingly,  we  find 
such  entries  in  old  records  as  this  in  1725:^  "John  Wright 
will  not  stand  to  his  matrimonial  promise ;  his  pledge  is 
forfeited,  being  a  crown,  to  the  poor.  The  woman,  willing  to 
abide  by  her  promise,  has  the  crown  she  has  laid  down  returned." 
But  it  not  unfrequently  occurred  in  those  indigent  days  that 
the  persons  were  so  penniless  that  they  had  no  money  what- 
ever to  deposit ;  in  that  case  they  required  to  leave  in  custody 
some  article  which  was  (at  least  to  them)  of  value.  For 
example,  in  1725  :  "John  Shepheard's  pledge,  consisting  of  a 
sword,  is  confiscated  on  non- performance  of  his  intended 
marriage.  It  is  estimate  at  36  s.  Scots,  and  to  be  sold  to  any 
who  will  buy  it."  At  other  times  there  were  left  as  securities 
for  good  behaviour  such  pieces  of  property  as  a  "  white  plaid," 
a  chair,  a  ring,  a  workman's  tool,  a  few  spoons,  and  little  articles 
of  rustic  jewellery.  Persons  were  also  forced  by  the  stern 
Sessions,  the  rigid  censors  of  morals,  to  come  under  other 
engagements  connected  with  their  wedding,  and  to  leave 
pledges  for  their  fulfilment.  They  were  made  to  promise  that 
they  should  have  no  festivities  or  penny  bridals,  with  their 
"  promiscuous  dancing,"  which  were  then  sources  of  scandal 
and  objects  of  condemnation.  It  was  a  common  order  that 
"  whosoever  shall  have  pypers  at  their  wedding  shall  forfeit 
pawns,  and  that  they  shall  not  meet  in  a  change-house  after 
their  wedding  under  the  same  pain."  ^  By  the  frequent 
forfeiture  of  these  pledges — the  pleasure  of  the  bridal  far  out- 
weighing the  pain  of  losing  the  pawn — no  small  addition  was 
made  to  the  revenue  of  each  parish. 

In  other  ways  private  vices  proved  public  benefits.     The 

^  Craraond's  Church  of  Crvden,  p.  145. 
'^  Edgar,  ii.  37  ;  Church  of  Cruden,  p.  139, 


244     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

fines  imposed  on  members  of  the  congregation  for  any  fault  or 
misdemeanour — above  all  for  immorality — greatly  supplemented 
the  parochial  funds.^  These  penalties  varied  according  to  the 
frequency  or  the  heinousness  of  the  sin,  and  also  according 
to  the  social  standing  of  the  offenders,  whose  scandal  should  be 
further  expiated  by  appearing  on  the  stool  of  repentance  and 
being  rebuked  from  the  pulpit.  To  escape  this  latter  shame 
and  ordeal  the  higher  classes  commuted  their  penance  into  a 
sum  of  money  to  the  Session,  and  the  laird  was  often  absolved 
in  private  while  the  servant  was  condemned  in  public.  As  the 
century  advanced,  and  decency  and  common  sense  opposed  the 
open  form  of  penance,  the  practice  of  exacting  money  fines 
became  more  usual,  and  the  funds  of  parishes  were  so  much 
enlarged  that  a  third  or  a  half  of  its  supplies  was  derived 
from  punishment  of  transgressors  of  morality. 

In  early  days  there  were  no  fixed  seats  in  parish  churches, 
and  each  worshipper  required  to  bring  his  stool,  or  "  creepie," 
each  Sunday  with  him,  or  to  leave  it  in  the  kirk,  if  he  did  not 
wish  to  stand  during  the  prolonged  service.  There  grew  up, 
therefore,  the  practice  of  letting  out  seats  for  hire  or  selling 
"  stances "  whereon  to  place  them,  and  the  proceeds  were 
devoted  to  the  support  of  the  poor.^  In  the  early  part  of  the 
century  it  was  only  by  express  permission  of  the  elders  and 
minister  that  a  seat,  or  "desk,"  could  be  affixed,  and  even 
when  any  one  erected  a  seat  at  his  own  expense  a  fixed  sum 
or  an  annual  rent  was  exacted.^  If  any  one  left  the  parish 
he  was  entitled  to  take  away  the  seat  that  he  had  "  set  up  " 
for  himself.      In  other  cases  the  Sessions  put  in  seats  and 

1  Penalties  in  Banffshire  :  £4  for  first  offence,  £8  the  second  ;  adultery,  from 
£20  to  £40  Scots  (in  1813  they  were  from  20s.  to  30s.  sterling).  Penalties  in 
Fordyce  between  1701-1714  =  £999  Scots.  No  fines  in  Presbytery  of  Fordyce 
after  1839. — Cramond's  Illegitimacy  in  Banffshire. 

2  1708.— "The  Session  appoints  that  every  pew  shall  pay  to  Session  half  a 
crown  for  the  use  of  the  poor,  and  the  same  be  payd  before  the  seats  be  set  up 
in  the  kirk."— Davidson's  Inverurie,  p.  144.  Lintrathen,  Blairgowrie,  Stat. 
Acct.  Scot.  ;  Parish  of  Cruden,  p.  142. 

'^  "  1721.— Put  into  the  box  for  Mr.  Stephen,  the  Session  having  granted 
liberty  to  put  up  a  pew  in  church,  £1,  10s."— Kirriemuir,  Jervoise's  Angus  and 
Mearns,  i.  201.  In  the  previous  century  tlie  Session  is  enjoined  to  build  a 
"desk  "  for  the  minister  of  Monymusk,  but  the  minister  was  himself  required 
to  pay  rent  for  it. — Davidson's  Inverurie,  p.  348. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  245 

forms  out  of  the  funds  of  the  church,  having  come  to  this 
resolution :  "  Whereas  there  is  now  a  great  deal  of  confusion 
and  disorder  in  the  body  of  the  kirk  by  chairs  and  seats,  and 
the  people  be  not  well  accommodate  " — in  such  a  case  it  was 
but  fair  that  they  should  extract  rent  for  behoof  of  the  poor, 
whose  collections  they  had  used  to  seat  the  church. 

There  were  other  sources  from  which  came  accessions  to 
parish  revenues  in  intermittent  streams,  some  of  which  dried 
up  owing  to  changes  of  fashion  in  society.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  century  the  practice  had  originated  amongst  the  Episco- 
palians of  having  private  baptism  and  private  marriage — a 
practice  which,  indeed,  was  forced  upon  them,  seeing  that  the 
sect  was  (up  till  1712)  virtually  prohibited  from  having  chapels 
of  their  own.  In  a  short  time  the  ministers  of  the  Church 
found  to  their  intense  annoyance  that  it  was  becoming  fashion- 
able among  the  richer  members  of  their  own  congregations,  and 
finding  that  it  was  both  impossible  and  impolitic  to  resist  the 
mode  too  resolutely  they  exacted  fines.^  These  moneys  went, 
of  course,  to  increase  the  parochial  funds.  Funerals  also 
brought  in  their  supplies  to  relieve  local  poverty.  There  were 
the  "  bell  pennies  " — equal  to  1 2  pennies  Scots — for  tolling  or 
tinkling  the  "  dead-bell "  before  the  coffin  at  funerals ;  there 
was  allowance  for  the  use  of  "  dead-shifts  "  for  the  poor,  and 
the  letting  out  of  mortcloths  to  cover  the  body  if  there  was  no 
"  kist,"  and  to  cover  the  coffin  if  there  was  one,  at  the  rate  of 
one  merk.  This  last  was  a  monopoly  of  the  Session,  and  if 
any  adventurous  tradesman  dared  to  offer  a  mortcloth  at  a 
cheaper  rate  he  was  at  once  pounced  upon,"  and  if  the  offenders 

^  Drymen,  Aug.  1696. — Kirk-Session  ordains  that  "  qiihoever  sends  for  the 
minister  to  marry  or  baptise  out  of  the  church  shall  pay  for  each  marriage  20 
shillings  (Scots),  and  for  each  baptism  10  sliillings  iolics  quoties.'' — G,  Smith's 
Strathcndrick,  p.  84.  There  was  good  reason  in  the  case  of  substitution  of 
private  for  public  marriaj^e  to  exact  penalties  to  help  the  poor,  because  on 
occasion  of  weddings  in  kirk  it  was  not  unusual  to  have  collections  for  parish 
funds.     In  Dunblane  : 

1693,  marriage  collections,  £2     5 

1694,  ,,  „  4  12 

0     9 
0  14 
Scotlisk  Antiquary,  v.  180. 
2  Greenshield's  Lesmahagow,  p.  139  ;  Elgin  Records,  p.  186, 


246     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

refused  to  submit  to  the  Church  the  heritors  were  directed  to 
refuse  a  grave  to  be  dug  except  by  those  who  would  employ 
the  parish  cloth,  which  had  long  ago  changed  its  original 
Genoa  black  for  brown  and  rusty  dinginess. 

All  these  rivulets  to  the  current  of  charity  were  substan- 
tially increased  in  some  fortunate  places  by  a  more  secure  and 
permanent  source ;  namely,  by  bequests  or  "  mortifications " 
left  by  the  dying  for  the  benefit  of  the  needy  of  their 
native  parish.  These  sums  to  modern  eyes  appear  strangely 
meagre,  although  in  those  frugal  days  they  were  regarded  as 
even  munificent.  In  commemoration  of  the  gift,  and  to.  en- 
courage the  others,  a  black  board  with  white  or  gilt  letters 
recorded  on  the  church  walls  how  "  A.  B.,  residenter,  left  a 
mortification  of  £100  Scots  for  the  poor  of  this  parish";  and 
to  the  gaze  of  successive  generations  of  grateful  worshippers 
(who  afterwards  mistook  invariably  the  humble  £100  Scots 
(£8)  for  the  substantial  £100  sterling)  this  benefaction  was 
fatiguingly  presented ;  and,  unfortunately,  the  keeping  of  this 
memorial  in  thorough  repair  in  time  probably  cost  the  parish 
more  than  the  original  donation  was  worth. 

One  more  parochial  source  of  emolument  deserves  to  be 
mentioned,  as  it  affords  a  glimpse  into  a  curious  phase  of  old 
Scottish  rural  life.  The  Kirk -Session  was  not  merely  the 
almoner  of  the  people — it  was  also  their  pawnbroker  and  their 
money-lender.  In  days  before  the  middle  of  the  century,  when 
agriculture  was  at  its  lowest  stage,  farmers — contending  with  bad 
soil,  bad  crops,  and  bad  seasons — were  in  sore  straits  for  means 
to  tide  over  ill  times.  As  county  banks  were  not  yet  estab- 
lished, and  there  was  no  security  to  offer  them  if  they  had 
been,  tenants  had  recourse  in  their  troubles  to  the  funds  lying 
in  the  Kirk- Session's  hands,  and  from  these  they  were  lent 
small  sums  to  help  them  out  of  their  difficulties  at  moderate 
interest,  giving  bonds  which  were  probably  as  good — but  no 
better — than  their  word.^  When  the  poor-box  underwent  its 
annual  review  there  therefore  appeared  a  motley  assemblage 
of  contents ;  besides  good  and  bad  copper  there  were  bills  and 
acceptances  of  all  kinds.  In  one  parish  in  1727  the  elders, 
after  ransacking  the  box,  record  that  "  there  were  in  the  poor- 

1  Grossart's  Parish  of  Shotts ;  Parton,  Stat.  Acct.  Scot.  ii.  187. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  247 

box  two  bills  and  three  bonds  amounting  to  £84  Scots,  and  in 
money,  black  and  white,  £71."  Next  year,  "there  is  a  bond 
of  200  merks,  bills  for  115  merks,  a  bill  for  39  pounds,  another 
for  15  pounds.  In  ready  money  142  pounds,  also  a  box  of 
doyts  and  bad  money  47  pounds,  which  exchanged  for  24 
pounds."  Not  always  were  these  money-lending  transactions 
successful  or  safe,  and  the  misplaced  confidence  of  friendly 
elders  in  their  poorer  neighbours,  and  perhaps  relatives, 
occasionally  sadly  impaired  the  finances  of  the  parish.  In 
their  anxiety  to  get  funds  there  was  no  expedient  to  which 
they  hesitated  to  resort  in  some  parishes — whether  to  keep 
milch  cows  for  loan,  or  to  let  out  the  communion  tables  to 
form  stalls  for  huxters  at  a  fair.^ 


Ill 

In  the  first  half  of  the  century  paupers  were  allowed 
Is.  6d.  to  2s.  a  month — an  allowance  which  rose  to  3s.  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  century ;  and  usually  this  aid  they  were 
permitted  to  supplement  by  begging  from  door  to  door.  In 
parishes  having  a  population  of  about  2000  the  whole  annual 
funds  at  the  disposal  of  the  Session  would  amount  to  £12  or 
£13  sterling.^  Smaller  parishes,  again,  where  weekly  collec- 
tions did  not  exceed  6d.  or  Is.,  were  able,  with  the  help  of 
fees  for  the  use  of  a  mortcloth,  "  so  ragged  that  nobody  will 
use  it,"  to  support  their  pensioners  even  at  the  end  of  the 
century. 

The  casual  doles  which  fell  from  the  hands  of  the  Session 
went  to  meet  the  most  extraordinary  variety  of  claims  from 
the  parishioners  of  olden  days,  as  specified  in  the  venerable 
records  with  quaint  phrasing  and  unhumorous  minuteness : 
"  To  a  woman  who  has  had  nine  children  at  three  births  is 
given  6d."  ;  ^  "  to  a  Paisley  bodie  called  Finlay,  4d."  ;  to  a  man 
"  to   help    to   pay  his   coffin,  £2,  8s."      There   came   for  aid 

^  Parish  of  Carluke,  \i.  266.  "July  1718. — It  is  appointed  that  none  of  the 
communion  tables  be  lent  out  at  fairs." — Paterson's  Hist,  of  Ayrshire,  ii.  128. 

^  Hawick  in  1727  had  £14  of  yearly  funds. — Annals  of  Hawick,  Edgar,  ii. 
59.     Stat.  Acct.,  Alloa,  viii.,  Parton  ;  Campbell's  Balmerino,  p.  240. 

^  Cramond's  Chtirch  of  Rathven ;  Edgar,  ii.  169. 


248      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

parishioners  who  were  sickly,  and  required  help  to  travel  to 
the  favourite  cures  of  the  time,  to  drink  the  goat's  milk  in  the 
Highlands,  or  to  drink  the  waters  at  Moffat  wells.  Thereupon 
was  handed  to  a  parishioner  "  troubled  with  a  tympany,  to  help 
to  pay  his  charges  to  going  to  Moffat  wells  for  cure,  £3  Scots."  ^ 
Every  burden  falls  upon  the  Session.  If  the  school  needs 
repair  it  is  applied  to,  and  there  is  "  given  for  thacking  the 
school,  £1,  4s."  If  there  is  found  dead  a  vagrant,  or  some 
poor  traveller,  on  the  roadside,  it  has  to  disburse  (l703) :  "To 
pay  for  coffin  to  a  poor  little  one  who  was  a  stranger,  6  s.  8d. 
Scots";  "for  a  chest  to  a  poor  stranger,  £1."^  Such  small 
sums  as  these — only  6^d.  for  the  vagrant  child's  coffin,  only 
Is.  8d.  for  the  stranger's  "  chest " — show  the  spareness  of  the 
funeral  expenses ;  and  even  the  larger  sums  of  2  s.  and  3  s.  6d. 
for  chests  for  poor  parishioners  testify  to  the  painful  frugality 
which  the  poverty  of  the  times  required.  But  in  many  places 
even  this  expense  was  not  displayed,  and  in  the  early  part  of 
the  century  for  the  poorer  people  a  "  parish  chest "  was  often 
used,  in  which  bodies  were  borne  to  the  grave,  and  buried  only 
in  their  winding-sheet  or  "  dead-shift."  ^  When  the  chest  was 
half  way  down  the  bolts  were  withdrawn  to  let  the  bottom 
fall  open,  and  the  corpse  fell  with  a  thud  to  the  ground  in 
the  shallow  grave.  Yet  in  spite  of  this  rigid  economy  we  find 
allowances  given  for  funereal  purposes  which  seem  hardly 
becoming  the  stern  and  austere  spirit  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  of  that  era,  however  thoroughly  they  may  have 
been  in  accordance  with  the  customs  of  the  people.  We  read 
how,  conceding  to  these  customs  of  the  day,  a  Kirk-Session 
has  given  to  a  pauper's  burial  "for  ale,  31s.,  and  for  tobacco 
and  pipes  to  the  said  burial,  15s.  6d.  Scots." 

■^  Guthrie-Smith's  Strathcndrick,  p.  70  ;  Parish  of  Shotts,  p.  46. 

^  1722. — Kirriemuir. — Jervoise's  Memorials  of  Angtvs  and  Ilearns,  i.  330. 

'  1701. — "The  Session  of  Rothesay  desiderates  yet  the  want  of  ane  engyne 
to  convey  the  coffin  conventlie  to  the  grave  with  the  corps.  Therefore  they 
appointed  John  M'Neill,  thesaurer,  to  agree  with  tlie  smith  to  make  and  join 
to  the  said  chest  a  loose  iron  cleek  iit  for  receiving  a  man's  hand  at  everie  end, 
and  appoints  the  same  chest  when  finished  to  be  recommended  to  the  kirk 
officer  ;  and  he  is  strictly  appointed  to  take  particular  care  that  the  said  chest 
when  used  be  no  way  damnified." — Hewison's  £ute,  ii.  288.  In  1780  paupers 
tlius  buried  in  Hawick, — Wilson's  Hawick,  p.  168  ;  Campbell's  Balmerino, 
p.  234. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  249 

It  would  be  unjust  to  these  bygone  days  and  long- 
departed  generations  to  suppose  that  their  whole  interest  was 
devoted  to  preserving  their  charity  for  their  own  folk,  and  all 
their  energy  was  devoted  to  turning  other  claimants  away. 
That  this  was  not  the  fact  is  abundantly  shown  by  the  old 
records  of  the  period,  which  prove  that  though  their  means 
were  small  their  hearts  were  very  kindly.  The  very  items 
inserted  in  the  minutes,  with  their  queer  phraseology  and 
quaint  penmanship,  bring  up  before  us  a  vivid  picture  of  the 
time  and  its  simple  ways.  Curious  claims  were  made  at  kirk 
doors  upon  these  ministers  and  elders,  as  they,  after  prayer, 
stood  waiting  to  attend  to  the  various  cases  in  turn.  It  may 
be  a  shipwrecked  sailor  wandering  to  his  home  in  rags,  and 
the  case  being  duly  considered  and  relieved,  the  clerk  writes 
down  :  173  4 — "  To  a  dispersed  seaman,  a  groat."  Poor  High- 
land students  were  not  seldom  trying  to  get  their  way  on  foot 
to  the  universities,  carrying,  perhaps,  their  bag  of  oatmeal  and 
satchel  of  books  slung  over  their  shoulders ;  and  these  met 
ready  attention  "  ;  -^  and  the  clerk  pens  his  items  :  "  To  a  blind 
student  that  hath  the  Irish  (Gaelic)  language,  3d." ;  "  to  three 
poor  students  going  to  the  college,  a  merk."  In  the  crowd 
seeking  help,  when  on  sacramental  Mondays  the  doles  were  dis- 
tributed, might  be  found  swarthy-faced,  strangely  clad  foreign 
seamen,  who  tried  to  make  their  wants  understood  by  the 
elders  unacquainted  with  any  tongue  save  their  own,  and  the 
clerk  with  a  bold  guess  enters  the  dole  to  "  four  Portuguese 
or  Spanish  shipwrecked  sailors,  8s."  Other  foreigners  pass 
through  the  country,  and  in  hapless  plight  came  before  the 
Session.  Now  it  is  a  "  poor  merchant,"  a  "  persecuted 
Polonian,"  or  "  a  converted  Mahometan,"  "  a  professor  of 
tongues  fled  from  France."  ^  Among  the  jostling,  noisy 
claimants  would  be  many  who  were  crippled,  imbecile,  and 
deformed  and  diseased — evidence  of  days  of  poverty  and  dirt 
in  filthy,  squalid  homes — numerous  as  the  lazzaroni  who 
swarm  in  the  streets  and  at  the  church  porches  of  Spanish 
and  Italian  cities  to-day ;  and  disbursements  to  such  unsightly 
beggars  are  faithfully  written  down :    "  To  a  great  object,  a 

^  Church  of  Rathvcn,  p.  47. 
"^  Upper  Deeside,  p.  105  ;  Phillip's  Parish  0/  Long/organ,  p.  188. 


250     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

groat,"  to  "  extraneous  strangers  "  and  "  distressed  supplicant."  ^ 
One  of  the  most  striking  cases  of  charity  were  persons  who 
professed  themselves  escaped  slaves  from  the  Turks.  For 
more  than  two  hundred  years  the  pest  of  the  Mediterranean 
had  been  the  corsairs  of  Barbary.  These  pirates  swooped  down 
on  every  defenceless  brig  that  they  could  descry,  plundered  the 
ships,  and  carried  the  crews  and  passengers  into  slavery. 
They  were  the  terror  of  the  seas,  and  the  one  object  of  dread 
to  those  who  sailed  by  the  coasts  of  Africa.  Scottish  ships 
not  a  few  set  sail  every  year  laden  with  their  goods — hides, 
tallow,  serges — for  export,  intending  to  return  by  Spain 
with  cargoes  of  oranges  and  wine  after  a  two  years'  coasting 
trade  in  the  southern  ports.  It  was  during  these  perilous 
two  years  that  many  found  their  fate,  and  were  sold  as  slaves 
to  merchants,  or  chained  to  the  oars  in  the  galleys.  The 
people  at  home  were  pitiful  to  these  poor  prisoners — partly 
because  of  the  cruelty  they  suffered,  partly  and  chiefly  because 
of  their  being  Christians  subjected  to  Mahometan  tyranny. 
Collections  were  made  often  in  churches  to  ransom  these 
Christian  slaves,  and  many  who  escaped  returned  in  abject 
poverty  to  their  own  shores.  Not  seldom  these  poor  men  in 
rags  appeared  at  the  kirk  door  as  they  journeyed,  after  long 
years  of  captivity,  on  the  way  home  seeking  help,  and  would 
point  with  their  fingers  to  their  speechless  mouths  to  show 
that  they  had  had  their  tongues  cut  out  by  inhuman  masters."^ 
These  never  failed  to  enlist  lively  interest,  and  the  entries  are 
exceedingly  common  of  aid  given :  "  To  a  poor  seaman  all 
mangled  by  the  Turks  " ;  "  to  four  men  barbarously  ill-treated 
by  the  Moors  " ;  "  to  a  seaman  with  his  tongue  cut  out  by  the 
Moors  of  Barbary."^  It  might  happen  occasionally  that  the 
Sessions  had  their  suspicions  whether  the  professed  escaped 
slaves  were  genuine  or  not,  but  they  were  obviously  unwilling 
to  give  them  the  disadvantage  of  a  doubt — and  therefore  help 
was  given  and  due  entry  made :  "  Given  to  two  poor  men  said 

^  1734. — Cramond's  Church  of  Rathven. 

^  "1723. — Given  to  distressed  seaman  who  had  his  tongue  cut  out  by  the 
Turks,  2s.  lOd." — Kirk- Session  of  Eathven.  "1726. — To  dumb  man  who  had 
his  tongue  cut  out  by  the  Algerians,  3s." — Kirk-Session  of  Fordyee. 

2  Kirk  -  Session  of  Fordyee,  1734  ;  Oathlaw,  1738  ;  Fordyee,  1743.— -S'co^s 
Antiquary,  p.  183;  1897. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  251 

to  have  been  in  Turkish  slavery,  3d."  ^  Doubtless  they  were 
often  imposed  upon  by  "  sailors "  wrecked  in  ships  that  had 
never  sailed  the  sea ;  by  "  Christian  captives  "  who  had  been 
slaves  on  shores  they  had  never  seen. 

Another  form  of  distress  peculiar  to  the  early  years  of  the 
century,  which  has  a  pathetic  interest,  is  chronicled  in  the 
Session  records  of  the  period  with  painful  frequency.  That 
was  the  abject  poverty  into  which  some  families  of  Episcopal 
ministers  were  thrown  when  they  were  cast  out  of  their 
manses,  at  the  time  that  Presbyterianism  was  re-established. 
It  is  impossible  to  follow  the  careers  of  those  who  were  cast 
adrift  to  seek  a  scanty  livelihood,  which  would  keep  soul  and 
body  together  in  those  days  when  trades  were  few  and  money 
was  scarce.  The  humiliating  straits  of  some  are  revealed 
by  entries  like  the  following:  "1721,  Sep.  2. — Given  to  ane 
Episcopalian  minister,  £1,  16s.  Scots";  "  Given  to  another,  18s. 
Scots  " ;  "  Given  to  Episcopalian  minister's  wife  and  children, 
6s.  Scots." "  Such  significant  accounts  give  a  glimpse  of  a 
sad  phase  of  old  Scottish  life — the  poor  "  outed  "  Episcopal 
minister  without  congregation  or  stipend,  or  even  means  to 
procure  sufficient  food  and  clothing,  forced  to  crave  help  from 
Presbyterian  elders,  who  dourly  gave  a  dole  to  the  "  curate  "  as 
to  one  tainted  with  the  curse  of  Prelacy,  and  sometimes  refused 
it  on  the  ground  that  he  "  did  not  attend  ordinances."  Among 
the  many  claimants  in  the  beginning  of  the  century  are  found 
men  of  good  rank  and  birth  reduced  by  the  poverty  and 
reverses  of  fortune  in  those  days  when  a  very  narrow  margin 
of  means  lay  between  the  incomes  of  impecunious  lairds  and 
farmers  and  absolute  penury.  The  doles  were  not  infrequently 
the  sum  of  a  groat  or  merk  to  persons  denominated  in  the 
records  "  strange  gentlemen,"  "  poor  gentlemen,"  "  distressed 
gentlemen,"  while  "  a  gentleman  recommended  by  a  nobleman  " 
receives  only  6d.  Scots.^  It  was  in  those  days  that  many 
small  farmers  and  tradesmen  who  had  fallen  into  need  were 
enrolled  in  the  list  of  "  gentle   beggars,"  and  if  their  names 

1  Ch.  of  Cullen. 

-  Notices  of  Carluke,  p.  78  ;  Stat.  Acd.,  Inverarity. 

■*  G.  Smith's   Strathblane  ;   Stat.  Acd.,  Inverarity,    Killearn  :    "1703. — To 
Robert  Lennox,  a  poor  gentlemen  8s.,  Scots." — Strathcndrick,  p.  66. 


252      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

seldom  appear  in  the  Kirk-Session  books  it  is  because  they 
were  privileged  to  beg  alms  at  any  house. 

Besides  these  distributions  of  money  to  persons  who  came 
before  them,  congregations  also  made  special  collections  for 
purposes  which  we  might  imagine  of  remote  interest  and  vague 
meaning  to  a  people  whose  knowledge  of  the  foreign  world  was 
scanty  indeed.  There  are  collections  (1731)  for  "  the  distressed 
Protestant  city  of  Eeddan  in  Poland "  (of  which  town  and 
population  the  congregation  must  have  cared  little  and  known 
nothing)  ;  ^  "  for  the  distressed  paroche  (Presbyterian)  of  New 
York  in  America  "  ;  "  for  the  poor  German  Church  in  London." 
These  purposes  awakened  little  interest  compared  with  collec- 
tions "  for  living  slaves  in  Algiers " ;  for  "  Simpson  and  his 
trew  slaves  in  Algiers."" 

It  is  pleasant  to  think  of  rural  folk  thus  being  awakened 
out  of  their  dull  life  in  the  bleak  moorlands  on  "  Sabbath " 
mornings,  and  their  sympathies  aroused  for  distress  and  danger 
far  beyond  their  doors,  away  to  lands  unfamiliar  beyond  the 
seas,  full  of  mystery  and  romance  to  their  Christian  imagina- 
tions. 

There  are  other  demands  on  the  charity  which  have  not 
the  merit  of  possessing  any  emotional  element  or  any  picturesque 
associations — contributions  requested  of  the  people  which  appear 
utterly  unwarranted ;  for  repairing  bridges  over  distant  rivers, 
steeples  of  churches  and  town  halls  which  they  would  never 
see,  piers  and  harbours  they  would  never  use.  It  is  difficult 
to  understand  why  in  1704  the  not  too  wealthy  labourers  of 
Drumoak  in  Upper  Deeside  should  have  a  collection  called 
from  them  to  mend  the  harbour  of  Kinghorn  in  Fifeshire  ^  (the 
contributions  in  this  case  amount  only  to  14s.  Scots),  or  why  on 
another  occasion  they  should  be  mulcted  to  put  to  rights  the 
steeple  of  the  burgh  of  Tain,  which  only  extracts  from  them 
lis.  Scots.  Equally  puzzling  is  it  to  see  why  needy  farmers  in 
Strathblane  church,  in  Stirlingshire,  should  contribute  for  the 
pier  in  St.  Andrews ;    and  the  congregation  of   Inveresk,  in 

^  Guthrie-Smith's  Strathblane,  p.  216. 

"  Campbell's  Balmerino,  j).  234  ;  Ch.  of  Cruden,  p.  216.  Collection  at 
Killearn,  1695:  "To  relieve  some  slaves  that  are  in  Barbary,  £1  Scots." — G. 
S.,  Strathendrick,  p.  66. 

3  Upper  Deeside,  by  Henderson,  p.  105. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  253 

Midlothian/  should  be  made  to  subscribe  to  a  harbour  in 
Girvan.  Still  more  difficult  is  it  to  comprehend  why  this 
should  be  enjoined  on  all  churches  by  order  of  the  General 
Assembly,^  These  public  calls  were  very  frequent,  and  pressed 
hard  on  poor  people  in  sore  straits  for  food  for  their  families ; 
and  they  reveal  the  prevailing  poverty  of  the  times — towns 
being  too  small  and  destitute  of  trade  to  carry  out  local  repairs 
at  their  own  charges,  and  landowners  having  too  little  means 
or  enterprise  of  their  own  to  repair  a  county  bridge.  But 
they  were  burdens  that  did  not  move  the  Christian  conscience 
to  liberality,  and  made  the  folk  murmur.^ 

Instead  of  being  scornful  at  the  petty  sums  gathered  and 
dealt  out  in  charity,  we  may  rather  admire  the  generosity  of 
the  people,  when  we  consider  the  narrow  circumstances  and 
wretched  condition  of  their  life.  The  tenants  of  farms,  paying 
for  their  little  "paffles"  of  miserable  land  some  £8  or  £12 
yearly  rent,  had  little  to  spare ;  still  less  had  the  ploughman, 
who  up  to  the  middle  of  the  century  had  only  fourpence  a 
week  in  money  if  he  were  unmarried,  and  if  he  were  married 
had  to  feed,  clothe,  and  educate  a  family  on  earnings  equal 
only  to  £7  or  £8  a  year,  of  which  all  but  £1  or  £2  was 
paid  in  oat  or  barley  meal.  Even  the  blacksmith,  carpenter, 
the  weaver,  had  little  money  in  their  store,  and  in  despair 
forced  to  give  doits  or  bad  copper  in  the  "  brods  "  to  keep  up 
their  respectability,  for  they  earned  only  6d.  a  day,  and  even 
that  sum  was  often  mainly  paid  by  their  employers  in  "  kind." 
Yet  the  people  were  hospitable  to  their  (if  possible)  poorer 
neighbours — ready  to  give  the  beggars  and  passers  by  a  share 

1  G.  Smith's  StrathUane,  p.  216;  Invercsl;  by  Lang,  "  Killearn,  1695.— 
Gathered  for  building  a  harbour  at  Kiukell,  £1,  10s. ;  1700— To  help  Lanark 
Bridge,  10s." — Strathendrick,  p.  66. 

2  "  1697,  Aug.  15. — Killearn,  according  to  Act  of  Commission  of  Assembly,, 
authorised  by  Lords  of  Trivy  Councill,  enjoyning  a  generall  collection  and  vol- 
untarie  contribution  throughout  the  kingdom  for  building  a  church  at  Konigs- 
berge  in  Prussia,  this  to  be  done  either  at  the  church  door  or  by  ciders  through 
their  several  districts." — G.  Smith's  Strathendrick,  p.  66. 

3  "The  straits  of  this  country  is  so  great,"  wrote  Wodrow,  "  thro'  the  want  of 
victual  that  our  collections  are  very  far  from  maintaining  our  poor,  and  the 
people  are  in  a  great  pet  with  collections  for  bridges,  tolbooths,  etc.,  that  when 
a  collection  is  intimate  they  are  sure  to  give  less  than  their  ordinary."— .^na^ec^a 
Scotica,  ii. 


254     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

of  their  dinner  of  broth,  a  handful  of  oatmeal  in  their  bags,  or 
shelter  by  the  peat  fire  at  night.  In  the  north-eastern 
counties  the  iron  handles  which  held  the  fir-stick  candles  were 
long  known  as  the  "  poor  man,"  ^  because  the  beggar  for  his 
food  and  roof  assisted  the  good  wife  by  holding  for  her  the 
candle  at  night  when  she  was  busy  at  her  household  work  in 
the  dingy  but  kindly  cottage. 

Meagre  as  the  doles  of  charity  seem  to  us,  they  were  really 
munificent  in  proportion  to  the  style  of  living  of  the  working 
classes  and  to  the  earnings  of  the  period ;  and  they  therefore 
were  received  without  a  grudge  by  the  claimants.  Oiily  is 
there  complaint  and  muttering  when  a  Kirk-Session,  with  no 
resources  left  except  base  brass,  is  obliged  to  give  as  alms 
coins  which  were  "  impassible." "  Even  past  the  middle  of  the 
century,  when  money  was  less  scarce  and  wages  were  higher, 
Kirk-Sessions  had  to  study  strictest  economy,  and  issued  their 
aid  in  the  smallest  coins  of  the  realm.  In  frugal  Morayshire 
ministers  were  unwilling  to  face  the  extravagance  of  giving  the 
large  sum  of  one  halfpenny  to  each  claimant,  and  found  a  con- 
venient compromise  between  the  old  Scots  money  and  the  new 
Enghsh  ^  in  the  form  of  farthings  which  made  the  parish  funds 
go  much  farther.  But  these  coins  were  rare  in  Scotland,  and 
the  Synod  got  at  various  times  large  quantities  from  the  mint 
of  London  for  distribution  amongst  the  various  Sessions  within 
its  bounds,  in  their  economical  doles,  until  they  could  get  no 
more  supplies.  This  action  on  the  part  of  ministers  was,  after 
all,  not  the  most  politic ;  for  it  is  certain  that  the  farthings 
doled  out  to  the  poor  quickly  found  their  way  back  to  the  plates 
•on  Sundays  as  naturally  as  rivers  find  their  course  to  the  sea. 

^  Rampini's  Morayshire. 

2  "  Poor  woman  complains  that  brass  money  in  last  distribution  was  doitts 
■of  little  or  no  use  to  her." — Maryton,  by  Fraser,  p.  230. 

2  "  1753. — It  was  moved  that  as  the  good  effect  of  bringing  the  last  quantity 
of  farthings  from  the  mint  of  London  was  sensibly  felt  throughout  the  whole 
•country,  and  has  in  a  particular  manner  been  beneiicial  to  the  poor,  that,  there- 
fore, some  person  should  be  again  employed  to  bring  down  to  the  amount  of  £500 
for  use  of  the  Kirk-Sessions  within  the  Synod."  In  1763,  "The  Synod,  consider- 
ing the  poor  have  suffered  from  the  scarcity  of  farthings,  recommend  members  to 
get  £100  of  the  same  down."  In  1766,  when  a  further  application  had  been 
made,  a  letter  from  London  announces  :  ' '  No  farthings  are  to  be  got,  and  none 
•are  to  be  coined  for  some  years." — Presbyter ij  of  Fordyce,  by  Cramond. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  255 


IV 

After  the  middle  of  the  century  the  progress  of  agriculture, 
the  development  of  trade,  the  rise  of  manufactures  of  all  kinds 
— linen  work  especially — were  working  a  social  revolution  in 
the  country.  The  old  stagnation  of  industrial  life  disappeared, 
the  lethargy  which  had  been  painfully  characteristic  of  the  whole 
community  vanished  throughout  the  Lowlands ;  the  state  of 
abject  poverty,  which  had  come  from  lack  of  food,  lack  of 
work,  lack  of  wages,  passed  away,  as  new  methods  of  farming 
made  the  land  fertile — as  new  occupations  employed  every  hand, 
and  demand  for  labour  brought  higher  earnings  to  every  class 
of  the  poor.  If  it  happened  that  the  price  of  living  rose 
so  high  that  the  meagre  doles  were  no  longer  sufficient  to 
keep  soul  and  body  together,  it  also  happened  that  there 
were  far  fewer  poor  who  needed  help  in  rural  districts, 
and  the  swarming  beggars  who  had  no  excuse  for  idleness  were 
obliged  to  disappear  or  join  the  ranks  of  labour.  It  was  in 
the  large  towns  that  poverty  began  to  be  felt — the  waifs,  the 
weak,  the  old,  the  loafers,  who  amidst  the  energy  of  work  all 
around,  were  to  form  a  pauper  class  in  the  towns  as  they 
increased  in  population. 

It  might  naturally  be  supposed  that  as  this  development 
in  trade  and  industry  proceeded,  that  the  funds  at  the  disposal 
of  the  churches  would  increase  in  proportion,  and  that  larger 
contributions  would  meet  amply  the  needs  of  a  growing 
population.  There  were  many  circumstances  which  prevented 
the  realising  of  such  a  natural  expectation.  One  of  these  was 
the  origin  and  increase  of  dissent  in  the  land.  Presbyterian 
dissent  had  arisen  in  1737,  but  the  effect  of  that  on  the 
resources  for  the  poor  was  not  much  felt  till  some  time  after 
the  middle  of  the  century,  when  the  numbers  of  the  Seceders 
had  become  very  considerable  throughout  the  country.^  By 
that  time  the  loss  of  these  sturdy  Christians  to  the  Kirk 
seriously  affected  the  amount  of  church  collections,  and  what 
made  it  the  more  aggravating  to  the  Kirk-Session  was  the 
fact  that  these  dissenters  themselves,  when  they  became  old, 

^  MoncreifTs  Life  of  Dr.  Erskme,  p.  468  ;  Stat.  Acct.,  Old  Kilpatrick. 


2S6     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

infirm,  or  sick,  had  no  hesitation  whatever  in  demanding  rehef 
from  those  funds  to  which  they  and  their  co-religionists  had 
never  contributed,  and  which  their  absence  from,  the  kirk  had 
done  much  to  reduce.  Besides  that,  fines  in  commutation 
of  discipline,  fees  for  certificates  of  marriage  and  baptism,  were 
now  intercepted  by  the  Sessions  of  dissenting  bodies,  such  as 
Original  Seceders,  Episcopalians,  and  Eelief  Kirk.  This  matter 
was  a  source  of  incessant  parochial  irritation,  and  added 
intensity  to  sectarian  bitterness.  Yet  another  cause  which 
lessened  the  contents  of  the  poor-box  was  the  increase  of 
absenteeism  on  the  part  of  proprietors.  Of  old  they  had'  lived 
in  their  country  houses,  and  in  spite  of  the  straitness  of  their 
rents  their  care  of  the  people  had  been  kindly,  and  their 
intercourse  with  them  had  been  intimate.  Gradually  more 
and  more  landowners  resorted,  with  the  growing  incomes 
which  "  good  times "  brought,  to  Edinburgh,  or  London  for 
months,  and  the  poor-box  got  emptier.  Many  had  adopted 
the  Episcopal  form  of  dissent,  deserted  the  parish  church  in 
towns,  and  left  the  burgesses  to  look  after  the  poor.  As  the 
country  grew  older  a  change  also  came  over  the  religious 
habits  of  many  classes  in  society — the  old-fashioned  austerity 
relaxed,  and  so  likewise  did  the  church-going  ways — men  of 
fashion  and  quality  were  conspicuous  for  their  absence  in  kirk, 
where  their  fathers  had  been  as  conspicuous  by  their  presence,^ 
and  the  weekly  collections  for  the  poor  in  consequence  grew 
less.  In  many  a  parish  where  one  or  two  large  proprietors 
owned  the  land,  and  these  were  either  absent  from  the  estate 
or  absent  from  the  church,  they  might  not  contribute  a  shilling 
to  the  poor  on  their  own  ground  while  drawing  the  rents  from 
the  whole  parish.  By  all  such  circumstances  more  and  more 
the  burdens  were  left  to  be  borne  by  the  less  well-to-do — the 
churchmen  had  to  keep  the  dissenters ;  the  tenants  had  to  re- 
lieve the  servants  of  the  landlord,  and  according  to  the  common 
saying  in  Scotland,  it  was  the  poor  who  maintained  the  poor.^ 

^  "One  cause  of  decrease  in  funds  for  poor  is  that  men  of  rank  and  fortune  are 
very  irregular  and  even  criminally  neglective  in  their  attendance  on  divine  service 
on  the  Sabbath." — Stat.  Acct.,  Kilwinning,  ii.  167  ;  Chanibers'  Pict.  of  Scotland. 

^  "  To  my  certain  knowledge  the  heritors  in  certain  parishes  do  little  more 
than  defray  the  tenth  part  of  contributions  to  the  poor." — Farmer's  Mag.  Nov. 
1804. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  257 

By  the  middle  of  the  century  important  changes  in  agri- 
culture began  seriously  to  affect  the  condition  of  the  rural 
classes — changes  which  increased  poverty  and  entailed  distress 
for  a  while,  till  society  settled  down  to  a  new  order  of  things. 
Small  tenants  were  being  turned  out  to  give  place  to  larger 
farms,  crofts  were  being  absorbed  in  big  holdings,  patches  of 
land  which  had  given  livelihood  of  a  poor  sort  to  hundreds 
were  broken  up  in  the  North  and  turned  into  sheep-runs ; 
many  families  were  in  this  way  cast  adrift ;  small  tenants 
were  often  reduced  to  be  ploughmen  or  shepherds ;  and 
ploughmen  were  sometimes  forced  to  seek  employment  in 
towns  at  the  new  factories  springing  up,  for  which  they  had 
little  skill.  In  the  towns  was  arising  in  crowded  lanes  a 
class  of  poor,  far  less  careful,  thrifty,  and  self-respecting  than 
their  rural  neighbours,  which  began  to  form  a  permanent 
pauper  element.  It  is  true  that  this  disadvantage  of  larger 
towns  was  not  felt  for  a  generation  or  two,  because  the 
increase  of  industry  and  trade  was  so  great  that  it  absorbed 
those  who  were  cast  out  of  old  agricultural  work ;  and  besides 
that,  in  the  country  the  development  of  husbandry  with  more 
numerous  operations  and  vigorous  methods  of  cultivation,  and 
the  larger  amount  of  ground  reclaimed  from  waste,  and  moor, 
and  bog,  gave  more  occupation  and  better  wages.^  Many  cir- 
cumstances were  making  the  voluntary  and  church  aid  to  relieve 
poverty  more  and  more  insufficient,  and  the  necessity  to  meet 
the  wants  of  an  increasing  population  caused  at  last  larger  towns 
to  avail  themselves  of  a  law — old  as  1579 — which  authorised 
public  assessments  to  be  made  for  the  support  of  the  poor. 

Yet  in  spite  of  all  its  population  of  70,000  it  was  not  till 
1770  that  Glasgow  resorted  to  this  tax;  it  was  not  till  1783 
that  Paisley,  with  its  nourishing  trade,  employing  24,000 
workers,  and  Greenock  with  its  population  of  18,000,  and 
its  commerce  with  the  Indies,  made  any  public  assessment  for 
its  paupers ;  while  in  Edinburgh  this  was  not  done  till  the 
end  of  the  century." 

'  Towards  the  end  of  tlic  century  great  numbers  of  Highlanders  found  their 
way  to  Glasgow  and  Greenock,  driven  from  stress  of  poverty  at  home  to  increase 
poverty  elsewhere. — Lettice's  Toxir  throwjh  Scotland,  Lond.  1794. 

'■^  Burn's  Dissertations,  p.  96.  Reports  of  General  Assembly  in  1818  state 
that  prior  to  1700  assessments  took  place  in  only  3  parishes  ;  between  1700  and 

VOL.  I  17 


258      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

There  were  arguments  combined  of  policy,  and  sentiment 
and  piety  brought  forward  with  great  vehemence  against  the 
imposition  of  rates.  It  was  opposed  on  the  score  that  the 
system  would  lessen  the  self-respect  of  the  people ;  that  it 
would  obliterate  all  sense  of  shame  in  those  who  would  accept 
from  a  public  rate  relief  they  disdained  to  accept  from  the 
"  poor-box."  It  was  condemned,  on  the  one  hand,  as  extinguish- 
ing kindliness  in  the  rich,  and  on  the  other  as  extinguishing 
gratitude  and  self  -  dependence  in  the  poor.  There  was 
an  exceeding  bitter  cry  from  ministers  throughout  the 
country  at  the  end  of  the  century  against  any  change  in  the 
old  patriarchal  system,^  which  they  regarded  as  sacred — a 
burden  of  divine  appointment,  and  in  clear  conformity  with 
Scripture.  As  a  rule,  the  people  had  a  feeling  of  humiliation 
at  being  paupers ;  there  was  even  a  shame  in  having  one  of 
their  relatives  on  the  "  poor-box,"  as  it  was  called,  and  to 
avoid  such  a  fate  themselves  was  a  constant  motive  for 
frugality  and  saving.^  Yet  all  the  while  it  is  clear  that 
gradually  the  vaunted  feeling  of  pride  was  dying  away,  and 
that  to  be  a  pauper,  or  to  "  be  on  the  poor-box,"  had  lost  in 
some  districts  much  of  its  odium.^ 

After  all,  it  is  impossible  to  feed,  clothe,  and  support  the 
destitute  on  sentiment,  and  the  inevitable  needs  of  life  must 
be  met  by  means  more  regular  and  sustaining  than  a  fitful 
spirit  of  independence  in  the  peasantry.  It  is  more  likely 
that  vanity,  and  not  honest  pride,  was  the  most  successful 
deterrent  to  any  one  allowing  his  name  to  appear  on  the  poor- 
roll.     The  great  ambition  of  the  very  poorest  was  to  have  what 

1800  in  93  parishes  ;  and  up  to  1817  in  142.  In  Report  of  1739  the  numbers 
assessed  were  142. — Nicholl's  Scottish  Poor  and  Poor  Laws,  p.  102. 

^  Kames'  Sketches  of  Man,  vol.  i.  ;  Stat.  Acct.,  Coldstream,  iv.  418  ;  Portmoak, 
vi.  168  ;  Selkirk,  ii.  443  ;  Dalserf,  ii.  380. 

^  Burns'  Dissertation,  vi. :  "  So  great  commonly  is  the  horror  and  aversion 
entertained,  that  the  most  humiliating  and  insufferable  term  of  reproach  that  can 
be  cast  upon  any  one  is  that  their  parents  or  near  relatives  were  supported  by 
the  Session  as  it  is  called."  "So  great  is  this  sentiment,  that  in  order  that  this 
odium  may  never  fall  upon  their  offspring  they  study  to  live  with  the  utmost 
frugality  that  they  may  be  able  to  save  something  for  old  age  as  to  bury  them 
decently.  To  have  wherewithal  to  purchase  a  coffin  and  a  winding-sheet,  if 
nothing  more,  is  the  height  of  their  ambition." — Fanner's  Mag.  p.  24,  1804  ; 
Stat.  Acct.,  Old  Kilpatrick  ;  Newte's  Tour,  p.  337,  1790. 

^  Stat.  Acct.,  Killearn,  xvi.  621  ;  Irvine,  vii.  178. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  259 

was  called  a  "  decent  funeral  " — that  is,  a  funeral  to  which  all 
the  male  inhabitants  of  the  parish  were  invited,  and  at  which 
the  usual  entertainments  must  be  given.^  The  expense  for 
coffin,  ale  or  whisky,  cake,  and  tobacco,  amounted  at  least  to 
£2,  and  this  sum  all  persons  in  the  meanest  circumstances 
were  anxious  to  lay  up  for  the  event  of  their  death,  and 
would  not  expend  otherwise  except  in  direst  necessity.  The 
convivial  obsequies,  however,  could  not  happen  in  the  case  of 
any  who  were  on  the  poor-roll,  either  of  the  church  or  of 
the  parish,  because  before  a  person  became  a  pauper  he  was 
required  to  give  up  all  his  "  goods  and  plenishing "  to  the 
Session.  He  had,  therefore,  only  to  look  for  a  pauper's  burial, 
an  ill-made  "  kist " — costing  4s. — without  the  dignity  of  a 
threadbare  mortcloth  to  cover  it,  and  only  an  attenuated  line 
of  thirsty,  hungry,  unsatisfied  mourners  to  follow  it.  Eather 
than  disappoint  a  poor  soul  of  a  festive  funeral,  sympathetic 
Kirk-Sessions  often  supplied  some  money  for  ale,  and  tobacco, 
and  pipes,  or  even  gave  the  relatives  £2,  if  the  effects  given 
up  by  the  deceased  had  come  near  to  that  sum — acting  with 
a  liberality  and  kindliness  unknown  to  unsentimental  and 
remorseless  poor-laws.^  To  be  buried  respectably,  and  be  clad 
decently  as  a  corpse,  was  a  firm,  self-respecting  resolution. 
When  a  woman  married  she  spun  her  winding-sheet.  It  was 
kept  with  reverence,  every  year  taken  out  and  aired,  and  put 
carefully  in  a  drawer  till  it  was  required  for  the  burial. 

Up  to  the  close  of  the  century  the  public  assessments 
were  very  rare,  although  it  was  in  towns  becoming  obvious 
that  the  existing  arrangements  were  insufficient,  and  that 
pauperism  was  no  longer  a  problem  with  which  the  Church 
alone  could  cope.^  Ministers,  in  their  various  Statistical  Accounts 
of  their  respective  parishes  in  1792-4,  are  forced  in  despair 
to  long  for  improved  methods  of  relief  in  spite  of  their  fond, 

'  Stat.  Acct.,  Kincardine,  vi.  487  ;  Gargunnock,  18. 

-  Burns  (Robert),  D.D.,  Dissert,  on  Law  and  Practice  with  regard  to  the  Poor, 
1819,  p.  297.  In  1830  the  burial  of  a  [paujicr  in  town  cost  about  12s. — coffin 
6s.,  bottle  of  whisky  Is.  6d.  to  drink  at  the  "lifting,"  with  a  loaf  of  bread  and 
cheese,  and  3s.  or  4s.  for  grave. — Chambers'  Picture  of  Scotland,  p.  240. 

^  kytons  Survey  0/  Ayrshire,  1811.  Annual  payment  to  single  pauper  in 
1830  had  risen  to  £2:11  : 8,  or  about  Is.  a  week.  In  cities  Is.  6d.  and  2s. 
was  the  common  weekly  allowance. — Chambers'  Book  of  Scotland,  p.  239. 


26o     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

pathetic  love  of  the  old  patriarchal  ways,  and  they  depict  a 
miserable  state  in  remoter  districts.^  In  Sutherland,  we  read, 
Cromdale  has  a  population  of  3000,  and  has  only  from 
£10  to  £15  a  year  to  support  forty  paupers — "many  being 
reduced  householders  who  would  rather  starve  than  bew." 
Dornoch  with  its  population  of  2540  has  from  eiglity  to  a 
hundred  on  the  poor-list,  "  whose  only  means  of  support  is  part 
of  the  collection,  amounting  to  £7,  supplemented  by  fines  from 
delinquents,  so  that  the  poor  live  by  begging  from  parish  to 
parish."  In  Wick  there  is  a  poor-roll  of  150,  and  yet  there 
is  little  else  to  maintain  them  except  the  collections  which, 
"after  deducting  bad  coppers,  amount  to  from  £10  to  £12, 
affording  2s.  a  year  to  each  pauper."^  Yet  in  northern 
counties  what  else  could  be  expected  ?  The  inhabitants  had  not 
work  enough  to  keep  half  of  their  numbers  in  employment, 
and  they  lived  in  misery,  rags,  and  hovels,  in  chronic  anticipa- 
tion of  a  dearth  amounting  to  famine  every  four  or  five  years. 
Those  in  work  could  not  give  much  to  church  collections 
on  Sundays,  or  help  to  their  neighbours  who  begged  on  week 
days.  The  mystery  was  how  they  subsisted  or  existed  at  all. 
Coming  farther  south,  we  may  take  as  an  illustration  of 
social  poverty  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
parish  of  Abernethy,  in  Perthshire;^  it  has  1760  inhabit- 
ants, and  it  has  £6  a  year  as  parochial  funds  to  feed,  clothe, 
and  shelter  its  paupers  — "  not  enough,"  as  the  minister 
says,  "  to  buy  shoes  for  their  feet,  so  that  they  live  chiefly  by 
begging  from  the  farmers  from  door  to  door."  It  is  true  that 
many  parishes — indeed  the  majority — were  able  to  support 
the  poor  somehow  on  the  small  parochial  funds  at  their  dis- 
posal, especially  as  family  pride  made  people  support  their 
relatives  rather  than  that  they  should  incur  the  stigma  of 
being  on  the  poor-roll.      But  in  others — especially  in  towns 

*  "  The  Highland  poor  have  of  late  become  so  numerous  in  the  Lowlands  that 
some  towns  positively  refuse  them  admittance.  '  We  are  eat  up, '  say  they, 
'with  beggars.'  " — Knox,  British  Empire,  i.  126. 

2  Slat.  Acct.,  Cromdale  ;  Dornoch  ;  Wick.  Rogart  had  a  population  of 
2000,  and  only  £14  of  poor  -  money  ;  Kildonan  a  pop.  of  1400,  poor  -  money 
only  £8;  Assynt,  pop.  2400,  poor -money  £11. —Stewart's  Sketches  of 
Highlands,  i.  165. 

'  Stat.  Acct.,  Abernethy,  vol.  xiii. ;  Lochmaben. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  261 

— the  strain  was  far  greater  on  voluntary  charity  than  it  could 
bear.^ 

At  the  same  time  the  growth  of  trade,  the  increase  of 
industrial  activity,  had  greatly  diminished  poverty ;  the  half- 
starved  Highlanders  got  work  in  cotton  mills  and  factories, 
and  beggars  ceased  to  swarm  in  the  land.  Owing  to  the 
remarkable  revolution  which  had  come  over  the  country — the 
rapid  rise  in  trade,  in  commerce,  in  agriculture — the  wages  of 
the  people  had  increased,  and  even  doubled.  The  earnings  of 
the  ploughman  in  1750  had  been  equal  only  to  £7  or  £8  a 
year,  but  in  1790  they  were  equal  to  £14  or  £16,  and  with 
that  they  lived  in  fair  content  and  comfort.  In  trades,  the 
mason,  the  weaver,  the  carpenter  who  could  in  1750  only  earn 
his  6d.  a  day,  in  1790  made  his  Is.  or  Is.  2d." 

If  they  paid  more  for  their  food  they  were  better  housed, 
they  were  better  clad,  they  had  comforts  to  which  in  their 
youth  they  had  been  strangers,  and  enjoyed  things  now  which 
indeed  were  still  luxuries,  although  to  their  children  they 
became  necessities.  Yet  the  increased  cost  of  living,  the  • 
price  of  clothing,  house  rent,  and  education,  used  up  much  of 
their  larger  earnings,  and  did  not  leave  a  very  wide  margin 
for  saving,  nor  yet  for  spending. 


V 

There  was  one  altered  aspect  of  social  Hie  and  feeling  which 
many  observers  noted  with  regret  towards  the  close  of  the 
century — that  was  the  diminishing  of  homely,  kindly  relations 
between  the  richer  and  the  poorer  classes.  In  olden  days 
there  was  a  real  attachment  and  friendship  between  the 
different  ranks,  especially  in  the  rural  districts.      All  indeed 

'  Gibson's  Hist,  of  Olasiiow.  Speaking  of  Glasgow  in  1800,  a  writer  says, 
"  Tlie  pauper  class  is  too  in  significant  to  be  separated  Irom  the  oiierative  class." 
— Glasgmv  Past  and  Present,  ii.  94.  In  Edinburgh,  with  a  population  in  1773  of 
80,000,  there  were  only  1800  paupers,  which  includes  all  the  boys  at  educational 
cliaritable  institutions  [such  as  lleriot's  Hospital],  while  Bristol  with  a  less 
population  has  no  fewer  than  10,000. — Arnot's  Hist.  0/ Edinburf/h,  p.  559. 

-  Conij)are  the  condition  of  the  labouring  classes  in  France,  who  had  lOd.  a 
day  before  the  Revolution,  and  Is.  3d.  after,  and  the  English  peasant  who 
had  Is.  5d.  and  the  skilled  artisan  who  had  from  2s.  to  2s.  6d. — Young's 
Travels  in  France,  p.  i  1 0. 

VOL.  I  '  17  a 


262      SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

were  alike  poor,  their  ways  were  alike  simple ;  spinning  was 
the  occupation,  and  frugality  was  the  necessity  both  of  laird's 
wife  and  the  farmer's  wife.  The  landlords  and  their  families 
were  intimate  with,  and  interested  in,  the  concerns  and 
fortunes  of  the  humbler  classes  near  their  doors,  who  had 
lived  in  the  same  quarters  for  generations,  in  days  when  there 
was  no  trade  to  attract  them  away,  and  no  "  improvements  " 
to  turn  them  out.  The  children,  rich  and  poor,  the  sons  of 
laird,  minister,  farmer,  ploughman,  sat  on  the  same  forms  at 
the  parish  school,  sharing  its  teaching  and  its  not  quite 
impartial  discipline.  After  the  middle  of  the  century  -and 
onwards  to  its  close,  however,  there  was  a  transformation  for 
the  worse  in  these  relations,  and  there  appeared  a  widening 
gulf  between  each  rank.  As  agricultural  progress  advanced, 
the  farmer,  who  had  formerly  been  on  about  the  same  social 
level  as  his  workpeople,  who  were  often  his  own  kin  and — if 
they  lived  under  his  roof — sat  at  the  same  board,  became  a 
"  man  of  substance,"  and  with  a  larger  farm,  larger  rent,  and 
larger  income,  adopted  more  ambitious  tastes  and  habits, 
having  less  in  common,  and  more  distant  relationship,  with 
his  servants.  The  lairds,  too,  with  the  better  times  and 
bigger  rent-rolls,  forsook  the  simpler  ways  and  style  of  the 
past,  and  forgot  those  old  days  when  their  fathers  went  clad 
in  clothing  which  their  own  wives  had  spun  ;  they  lived  less 
in  the  country  or  among  their  own  people,  while  in  their 
natural  desire  to  improve  their  property  and  their  rents  they 
added  farm  to  farm ;  whereby  small  tenants  were  deprived  of 
their  holdings  and  labourers  of  their  work,  and  then  new  men 
came  into  the  new  reclaimed  acres.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  all 
these  changes  materially  affected  social  relationships,  and  how 
separation  in  interest  and  sympathy  was  further  increased 
between  rich  and  poor. 

A  similar  process — loosening  attachment  and  widening 
the  distance  between  higher  and  lower  ranks — went  on  in 
towns,  notably  in  Edinburgh.  When  families  of  all  ranks  ^ 
— from  the  highest  to  the  lowest — lived  close  to  one  another, 
in  the  High  Street  and  Canongate,  in  the  same  tenement  or 
"  land  "  of  nine  or  ten  flats,  there  existed  a  special  neighbour- 

^  W.  Cliambersi'  Book  of  Scotland,  1830,  points  this  out,  p.  226. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  263 

liness  among  them  all.  In  the  several  "  landings,"  descend- 
ing in  dignity  as  they  ascended  in  height,  dwelt  on  the  same 
stair  peers,  lords  of  session,  clergy,  doctors,  shopkeepers, 
dancing-masters,  artisans,  while  in  the  cellar  lodged  the  water- 
caddy,  the  sweep,  and  the  chairman.  The  distress  of  the  poor 
neighbour  on  the  stair  became  the  concern  of  all,  and  poverty 
in  the  "  close "  was  relieved  in  common  friendliness.  The 
very  beggars  were  old  friends,  and  exchanged  jokes  with  his 
lordship  going  to  the  Parliament  House.  But  about  1770 
the  fashionable  and  wealthy  began  to  migrate  to  the  suburbs 
and  stately  houses  in  the  ISTew  Town ;  they  withdrew  from  the 
ill  -  flavoured  wjTids  in  the  High  Street,  where  high  and 
low  had  for  ages  dwelt  companionably  together.  The  poor 
remained  behind  in  the  old  quarters,  and  the  rich  when  they 
left  did  not  lose  their  homely  interest  in  them.  Now,  there- 
fore, when  poverty  came,  public  assessments  were  made  to 
relieve  it ;  when  beggars  increased  the  law  was  enforced  to 
suppress  them. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  that  as  the  century  proceeded 
there  sprang  up  an  independence  in  manner  in  the  quickly 
increasing  artisan  classes,  and  a  lessening  of  that  deference 
and  respect  for  rank  which  had  curiously  subsisted  in 
spite  of  ancient  homely  intimacy  and  familiarity  of  rural 
intercourse.  This  change  has  been  traced  in  part  to  the 
rise  and  spread  of  the  Secession  from  the  Church,  which 
generated  a  spirit  of  antagonism  in  the  poorer  classes  of 
the  "  dour "  type  to  those  who  held  by  the  old  Church.^ 
To  them  the  title  of  "  humble "  ranks  would  be  a  mis- 
nomer. The  very  cause  of  the  schism  —  a  fierce  opposi- 
tion to  the  patronage  exercised  by  the  heritors  and  State, 
and  a  scorning  of  the  Establishment  as  corrupt,  as  back- 
sliding, as  faithless — filled  those  who  seceded  with  a  stalwart 
opinionativeness,  a  grim  consciousness  of  their  superior  godli- 
ness and  purity,  and  there  was  no  sacrifice  of  time  too  great 
to  make,  no  journey  too  long  to  take,  whicli  enabled  them  to 
listen  to  the  words  of  a  faithful  preacher  of  the  Covenant. 
This  religious  pride — if  we  do  not  care  to  call  it  conceit — 
no  doubt  had  its  fine  side  of  conscientiousness,  and  its  interest- 

'  Ramsay's  Scotland  and  Scotsmen,  ii.  58. 


264     SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUR  V 

ing  picturesqiieness.  But  it  certainly  did  foster  a  brusqueness 
of  manner  and  independence  of  spirit  which  passed  from  church 
polity  to  politics,  and  infected  at  large  the  whole  community. 
Now  it  happened  that  instead  of  laird  and  people  all  being  of 
one  religious  body,  all  meeting  together  in  the  same  kirk,  and 
having  intercourse  in  the  kirkyard,  the  Seceder,  without  a 
touch  of  his  bonnet,  passed  the  laird  on  the  road,  and  stalked 
on  with  satisfaction  of  superiority  of  conviction  to  the  meeting- 
house of  the  "  body  "  he  belonged  to.  This  helped  to  intro- 
duce discordance  of  interest  which,  blended  with  other  causes, 
served  to  widen  the  cleavage  of  ranks. 

Meanwhile  changes  of  life  and  opinion  were  occurring  in 
the  Highlands,  all  tending  to  the  same  direction,  producing 
similar  effects.  After  the  '45  all  despotic  authority  and  juris- 
diction were  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  Highland  chiefs,  and 
they  therefore  no  longer  counted,  as  in  olden  days,  their  power 
and  property  by  men  rather  than  by  acres ;  and  they  no 
longer  cared  to  see  their  people  increase  in  the  glens,  for 
these  could  no  more  add  to  their  strength  or  enhance  their 
importance.^  Of  old  every  reeking  chimney  in  the  glen  had 
indicated  where  dwelt  a  family  of  trusty  adherents  in  the 
fray ;  but  now  it  was  only  a  hovel  which  swarmed  with  beings 
who  were  a  burden  on  the  land.  Formerly,  too,  these  owners 
had  spent  their  rental  paid  "  in  kind  "  in  huge  hospitality  at 
home,  in  which  the  poor  and  the  beggar  joined ;  now  they 
often  spent  their  fortunes  in  the  fashionable  world,  in  which 
only  people  of  quality  shared.  The  needy,  in  short,  were  no 
longer  merely  "  poor  neighbours,"  but  nuisances ;  and  beggars 
were  no  longer  homely  features  on  the  estate,  but  pests  to  be 
suppressed  by  law. 

To  counteract  the  effect  of  these  social  changes  in  the 
relations  between  rich  and  poor  as  affecting  the  support  of  the 
needy  and  the  paupers,  there  came  the  growth  and  spread  of 
industry,  which  gave  work  to  the  community,  the  increase  of 
wealth    among    the   middle   ranks,  and  of  wages  among    the 

^  "  It  is  a  certain  fact  the  cliiel'tains  in  the  Highlands  are  now  for  the  most 
part,  instead  of  being  almost  adored,  in  general  despised.  And  why  ?  Many 
because  their  lands  are  let  out  in  large  sheep-walks  to  tenants  that  are  nearly 
as  independent  as  themselves,  and  the  tenants  turned  out  of  their  small 
possessions  have  no  more  favours  in  exi)ectatiou." — Hall's  Travels,  ii.  507. 


THE  POOR  OF  SCOTLAND  265 

working  classes.  The  times  had  changed,  the  thoughts,  the 
ways,  the  interests  and  habits  of  the  century  had  undergone  a 
great  transformation ;  but  the  development  of  intellectual 
and  physical  energy,  the  improvement  in  social  conditions, 
which  made  life  less  sordid  and  rude,  more  than  compensated 
for  the  quaintness  of  the  old  fashions  which  were  lost,  and  the 
picturesqueness  of  rural  life  and  simplicity  of  spirit  whicli 
liad  passed  away  for  ever. 


END    OF    VOL.    I 


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In  Two  Vols.,  Demy  Svo,  Cloth.     Price  24s. 

JOHN  KNOX 

A  BIOGRAPHY 
By  P.  HUME  BEOWN 

OPINIONS   OF   THE    PRESS 

"  It  would  be  impossible  to  criticise  this  book  adequately  within  the  space  at 
our  disposal,  for  it  is  a  serious  survey  not  only  of  a  single  life  but  of  the  whole 
state  of  European  politics  in  so  far  as  they  and  it  reacted  upon  one  another.  We 
must  be  content  to  say  that  Mr.  Hume-Brown  appears  to  us  to  have  achieved  a 
difiBcult  task  with  much  success." — Times. 

"This  fair-minded,  learned,  and  sympathetic,  though  not  foolishly  eulogistic 
biography." — Chronicle. 

"Of  Knox's  share  in  the  stirring  events  among  the  reformers  in  the  castle  of 
St.  Andrews  ;  of  his  life  in  the  French  galleys  ;  of  his  ministrations  at  Berwick, 
Newcastle,  and  London,  and  his  refusal  to  be  made  a  bishop  ;  of  his  sojourn  on 
the  Continent  and  his  first  intercourse  with  Calvin — Mr.  Brown  gives  a  full  and 
very  lucid  account,  with  here  and  there  an  additional  fact  which  is  either  quite 
new  or  which  has  not  hitherto  been  very  forcibly  presented." — Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

"A  careful  and  intelligent  study  of  Knox,  which  the  historical  student  will 
be  able  to  consult  in  the  full  confidence  that  he  will  find  in  it  all  that  is  known 
of  the  Reformer  in  its  right  place  and  in  due  lyro'poTtion."— Spectator. 

"  At  last  we  possess  a  biography  of  Knox  wliich  is  not  only  an  accurate  and 
learned  treatise  on  his  relation  to  the  times  in  which  ho  led  his  stormy  career, 
but  also  a  discriminating  and  most  readable  story  of  a  man  who  was  indeed  only 
second  to  Luther  in  the  part  he  played  in  the  great  drama  of  tlic  Reformation."— 
National  Observer. 

"Readers  of  all  kinds  will  be  grateful  for  the  two  latest  biographies  of  the 
great  Scotsman,  who  was  not  only  the  chief  instrument  in  the  reformation  of  liis 
own  country,  but  who  left  his  indelible  mark  on  the  churches  of  other  lands," — 

British  Weekly. 

A.  &  C.  BLACK,  SOHO  SQUARE,  LONDON. 


In  One  Volume,  Large  Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  gilt  top.     Price  7s.  Qd. 

X       THE  HISTOEY  OF  THE 
KEFORMATION  OF  RELIGION 
WITHIN  THE  REALM  OF 
SCOTLAND 

CONTAINING   THE    MANNER  AND    BY   Y/HAT   PERSONS 

THE    LIGHT    OF    CHRIST'S    EVANGEL    HATH    BEEN 

MANIFESTED  UNTO  THIS  REALM  AFTER  THAT 

HORRIBLE  AND  UNIVERSAL  DEFECTION 

FROM  THE  TRUTH,  WHICH  HATH 

COME  BY  MEANS  OF  THAT 

ROMAN  ANTICHRIST 

1527  to  1564 

By  JOHN  KNOX 

EDITED    FOR   POPULAR   USE   BY 

CHARLES  JOHN  GUTHRIE,  Q.C. 

WITH  NOTES,  SUMMARY,  GLOSSARY,  INDEX,  AND  FIFTY-SIX 

ILLUSTRATIONS 


SECOND    EDITION 

"The  task  is  one  which  Carlyle  desired  to  see  accomplished  nearly  thirty 
years  ago,  when  he  wrote  in  one  of  the  least  known  of  his  works  :  '  It  is  really 
a  loss  to  English  and  even  to  nniversal,  literature,  that  Knox's  hasty  and 
strangely  interesting,  impressive,  and  peculiar  book  .  .  .  has  not  been  rendered 
far  more  extensively  legible  to  serious  mankind  at  large  than  is  hitherto  the 
case.'  It  will  be  interesting  to  see  if  Mr.  Guthrie's  labour  can  restore  John 
Knox's  '  History  '  to  the  place  of  honour  it  once  held,  but  seems  long  to  have  lost, 
among  Scottish  classics." — Glasgow  Herald. 

"Nothing  more  graphic  in  incidents  and  portraiture,  or  trustworthy  in 
narrative,  than  this  history  remains  to  us  of  the  literature  of  the  period.  The 
book  represents  an  immense  amount  of  labour,  and  needs  only  to  be  casually 
examined  to  convince  one  of  the  editor's  intelligent  care  in  its  preparation,  and 
of  its  present-day  value.  The  footnotes  are  invariably  fresh  and  informative." — 
Pray  and  Trust  Magazine. 


A.  &  C.  BLACK,  SOHO  SQUARE,  LONDON. 


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